Solution Provider and Consultant to the Air Traffic Management Sector

Two major ATC players establish pivotal inter-regional communication link using new AMHS technology.

LONDON/UK, ATLANTA/USA, November 2011 – In October the two air navigation service providers, NATS (UK) and FAA (USA), brought into operation the first transatlantic AMHS connection after having thoroughly prepared this path-breaking milestone. Beforehand the two ANSPs had tested the performance and stability of the connection for several months following the test procedures of the EUR AMHS Manual including an extensive period of parallel operation of AMHS and AFTN links.
Since 2004 NATS has operated a COMSOFT message handling system of the market-leading brand AIDA-NG. In numerous other operational AMHS connections, AIDA-NG has already shown its outstanding interoperability and proves to be a reliable pillar for the establishment of the new technology.

The expert teams on both sides smoothly accomplished the recent transition from AFTN to AMHS, which is very promising for the establishment for further AMHS connections. Kevin Loy, Manager CACC at NATS, expressed his satisfaction regarding this outstanding success: “I would like to thank both the NATS team and also our colleagues in the FAA for all their hard work during the last year. In the UK, we look forward to be in a position shortly to implement a second inter-regional link up with ASIA/PAC through Singapore, indicating to the other regions that EUR is open for AMHS business. With respect to intra- EUR links from the UK, as soon as testing and commissioning of PENS infrastructure to our own national network is complete, we will be looking to roll-out connections to other centres within the region.”

In upcoming years AMHS will gain considerable significance, as AMHS not only utilises modern IP-based networks but also supports the exchange of modern data structures such as XML, which will form the basis of new product standards such as Digital NOTAM etc.

COMSOFT GmbH was established in 1979 and has been active in the ATC domain for over 20 years. The company enjoys a worldwide reputation in this market.

For further information, please visit our website at www.comsoft.aero or contact:
Miriam Geppert    Phone: +49 721 9497 – 1085 COMSOFT GmbH   miriam.geppert@comsoft.aero