Before diving into the shortlist, a big thank you to our judges and all of the time and effort they put in to reviewing the entries and making very hard decisions. Once again, this year’s judging panel was made up of:
- ATNS (Air Traffic Navigation Services): Nozipho Mdawe, CEO
- ATM Magazine: Claudia Bacco, Editor
- CANSO: Simon Hocquard, Director General
- EUROCONTROL: Paul Bosman, Head of ATM Infrastructure
- GUTMA (Global UTM Association): Koen De Vos, Secretary General
- Rohde & Schwarz: Anne Stephan, Vice President Critical Infrastructure & Networks
- Skyguide: Klaus Meier, Chief Technology Officer
- Think Research: Connor Mullan, Co-Founder and Managing Director
- Unmanned Airspace: Philip Butterworth-Hayes, Editorial Director and Publisher
We had another year with an overwhelming amount of entries, and would say the competition was even tougher than last year! The scope of entries crossed many regions of the world. From locations in the east - Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand; to the Middle East – Azerbaijan and the UAE; the United States; Europe and the UK. With organisations from more than 20 countries having submitted entries!
The topics and organisations submitting entries continues to expand. There were ANSPs, airlines, airports, vertiport designers, eVTOL OEMs, drone operators, research institutions, universities, industry consortiums and solution vendors. Topics crossed ATM, sustainability, UAM and drones from many different perspectives – drone delivery, UTM, drone detection, drone traffic management and much more. Of course, artificial intelligence (AI) showed up in this year’s entries too. It’s great to see more startups submitting entries this year, as this innovation is needed to continue growth in new ways within our industry. The Integration of Drones/AAM category had the highest number of entries across any category, making the shortlist selections very competitive here.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit an entry, it’s unfortunate that more entries can’t be on the shortlist to receive a potential award. Best of luck to everyone who didn’t make the list for future awards and best of luck to the shortlisted entries to be named as a winner or runner-up!
Re-imaging ATM Operations
Category description - New approaches to airspace design, route optimisation, airspace classification and dynamic airspace management.
Shortlisted entries:
- DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung and EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC): Common development of integrated flow management position (IFMP) at Karlsruhe and Maastricht Upper Area Control Centres with MAKAN cooperation
- Skyguide: PBW Implementation for Qatar FWC 2022 and post FWC
- NATS: West Airspace Deployment
- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Ltd. (AEROTHAI), Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) and The Boeing Company): Multi-Regional Trajectory Based Operations Live Flight Demonstration (MR TBO Demo)
- General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA): Free Route Airspace in the Emirates FIR
Digital Transformation in ATM
Category description - Accomplishments supporting enhanced performance in airspace operations. How automation, AI, and other tech-enabled advances are revolutionising ATM for increased efficiency, safety, and capacity.
Shortlisted entries:
- DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung: AI-based Arrival Manager and Validation/Certification
- EUROCONTROL: New Network Manager Operations Centre
- NATS, Leidos, Think & LVNL: Intelligent Approach goes live at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
- SkeyDrone: Lower Airspace Authorisation Solution
- European Satellite Services Provider, European Space Agency, easyJet, and Viasat: Global Engagement project
Integration of Drones/AAM
Category description - Initiatives that will manage this traffic, airspace initiatives, Proof of Concepts for AAM, Infrastructure – ie vertiports.
Shortlisted entries:
- Volant Autonomy: ALIAS Project
- Unisphere: Vertiport Integration Solution – Track Usability Optimizer
- SkeyDrone: Drone Detection as-a-Service Solution
- Airways New Zealand: Integration of a Wisk Aero drone into unsegregated controlled airspace
- U-ELCOME: U-ELCOME Digital Sky Demonstrator
- Austro Control/Frequentis: Dronespace UTM System
- Techno Sky S.r.l.: DVI2AM® - Drone for VOR and ILS / Infrastructures Advanced Maintenance
- NATS: AMEC (Air Mobility Ecosystem Consortium)
- Dronamics: Black Swan cargo drone
Greener Skies
Category description - Sustainable achievements that reduce emissions and minimise the environmental impact of air traffic.
Shortlisted entries:
- DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung: Future ATS System Architecture / Innovative Launch A New Era of Efficiency and Sustainability
- The Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department (HKCAD);Thales;Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK):Achieving Environmental Benefits through Implementation of Wake Turbulence Group and Approach Spacing Management System at the Hong Kong International Airport
- ENAV – Italy: Greener Italian Skies
- Intersoft Services & Skyguide partnership: CNS Drone SkyRF: Drone-based CNS Services
Resilience in ATM
Category description - Successful solutions to prepare for resilience to disruptions and unforeseen events.
Shortlisted entries:
- Aviation Studies Institute, Singapore University of Technology and Design: Resilient Airspace: Rapid assessment tool for TMA Optimisation During Disruptive Events
- Airways New Zealand: Resilient new physical and digital infrastructure
- ESSP (European Satellite Services Provider): ESSP Certification as pan-European Communication Services Provider for Iris data link services by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)
- EUROCONTROL NETWORK MANAGER: Weekly Rolling Network Operations Plan
- ENAIRE: GammaSIM VR
- ENAV: Delegation of Airspace
