The Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation

Date 02.02.2012

The CANSO Operations Conference in Amsterdam, 8-9 March will discuss opportunities for improving air traffic management (ATM) efficiency through ‘quick wins’ and future concepts.

With demand for air transport continuing to rise, the world’s air traffic management system must continue to improve to accommodate this future growth and to contribute to aviation’s environmental target of carbon neutral growth from 2020.

However, fragmented airspace, untapped airspace capacity and out-dated technologies and procedures can mean that airspace users face unnecessary delays leading to additional fuel use and CO2 emissions, especially in regions where air traffic continues to rise at an unprecedented rate.

CANSO and its member air navigation service providers are committed to delivering safe, efficient and cost-effective air traffic management services. Through its Operations Standing Committee (OSC) CANSO has identified opportunities for delivering significant improvements to the global ATM system by re-thinking airspace design, increasing industry collaboration, and the wide-scale implementation of proven technologies and procedures.

The CANSO Operations Conference, which is sponsored by Airbus ProSky, will bring together up to 100 leading air traffic management experts from around the world to discuss the way forward.

Under the theme of ‘Transforming Global ATM Performance’ discussion topics will centre on the near- and mid-term opportunities for helping airspace users cut fuel use and reduce CO2 emissions.

Special attention will be given to the implementation of controller-pilot data link communications and  the next steps in the roll-out of the ICAO Aviation System Block Upgrades (ASBUs).

The conference will also investigate opportunities for building on the success of recent joint projects between CANSO, IATA, ICAO and ACI, such as the Dubai-Johannesburg i-Flex trial which saved 3 tonnes of CO2 per flight, or the implementation of Airport-Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) which can improve the efficiency between mid-air and on-ground operations.

Future ATM concepts, such as space-based ADS-B, Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) and System wide Information Management (SWIM) will also feature in the discussions.

A detailed programme is available to download from www.canso.org/operationsconference2012.