Collaboration is a key topic in the aviation industry. How are ANSPs in Africa collaborating?
The African Union identified the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) as one of the 15 key Agenda 2063 flagship projects to transform Africa into a future global powerhouse. SAATM seeks to create one single air transport market in Africa through full liberalisation of intra-African air transport services in terms of market access and traffic rights for scheduled and freight air services by eligible airlines, thereby improving air service connectivity and air carrier efficiencies.
Initiatives such as collaborative decision-making (CDM) and air traffic flow management (ATFM), trajectorybased operations (TBO) and systemwide information management (SWIM) are key air traffic management (ATM) enablers of seamless operations within the SAATM. These ATM enablers ensure enhanced safety, capacity, efficiency and predictability including optimised routing by improving the entire lifecycle of a flight, from gate-to-gate operations.
The CANSO Mombasa ATFM Roadmap was developed to respond to the following challenges: safe and seamless air travel in the Africa-Indian Ocean region, fluctuating traffic demand, exponential growth in unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations and the requirement to develop the UAS traffic management system (UTM) and assist in the implementation of the AFI seamless sky through the introduction of ATFM.
Seamless operations within the AFI region seek to minimise the current fragmentation of African airspace and the air traffic management system by enabling traffic growth along with safe and efficient use of the airspace concerned, consequently achieving substantial fuel savings and reducing CO2 emissions.
How is ATNS currently incorporating remote tower technology?
Our remote digital towers (RDT) strategy is geared towards cost saving and our plan is to deploy this technology at airports that have low volumes of traffic and general aviation operations, to maximise the economies of scale across our operations.
These airports fall under the category of provincial and municipal airports. We believe that this approach will result in operational efficiencies and significant cost savings as we will no longer be required to deploy our resources at the current level. We will consolidate our resources at our three major air traffic service units (ATSUs), namely OR Tambo International Airport, Cape Town International Airport and King Shaka International Airport. That is, our RDT technology will not be deployed at our key ATSUs, as they will play the role of hubs. Ultimately, we will have a hub and spoke type of air traffic service (ATS) operation.
How is ATNS working on a solution for coping with UTM?
With the growth of drone operations in recent years, our airspace activities have taken a different shape. This is what triggered our work on a UTM solution. Our relationship and partnership with our safety regulator played a critical role in the development of this, as far as the development of regulations and compliance is concerned, in conformance with ICAO Doc 10019.
We recognise the role of our mobile operators and our partnership with them to ensure the viability of our UTM solution. As we continue to advance and refine the process, we will redefine the role of our mobile operators and other potential partners, through a working group that we have established under the CNS/ATM Implementation Committee.
As uncrewed traffic increases, how do you see the UTM and ATM functionality being integrated?
Over time, we have observed a significant increase of drone operations in South African airspace. Though most of these drones operate below controlled airspace, we deemed it necessary to start envisaging their integration within our traditional area of operation. Our first approach was to ensure that the regulatory environment is geared towards this new norm. Our safety regulator was very responsive in this regard and developed regulations to necessitate the co-ordinated functioning of UTM.
How does space-based navigation and surveillance affect your daily operations?
ATNS commenced with operational trials of the space-based automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast (ADS-B) service in 2022, with the objective of evaluating deployment viability of the technology to support the current surveillance environment within our area of responsibility. The processes to deploy the system operationally are currently unfolding and will open additional surveillance capabilities for ATNS.
We operate over a large area of oceanic airspace and the technology will enhance our surveillance coverage. We intend to introduce comprehensive situational awareness across our entire area of responsibility (more than 6% of the world’s airspace) through the introduction of this service into our existing technology portfolio.
What activities has ATNS undertaken during 2022 to address environmental concerns?
Preserving and protecting the environment is at the heart of how we conduct our business daily. This is why we are an ISO 14001-certified organisation. Our goal to be certified was informed by our appreciation of the importance of supporting the long-term global aspiration goal (LTAG). We continue to implement our environmental management system across all business units and operation centres. Our ISO 14001 certification also finds expression in other technical areas of our business, including the design of airspace procedures and flight routes that support minimal emission of greenhouse gases as well as reducing noise pollution. We have developed an organisational environmental protection policy and enforce compliance by conducting annual audits at all our operation centres.
How is the Aviation Training Academy (ATA) helping to attract more new staff to the world of ATC?
Being an ICAO Regional Training Center of Excellence, our products are world class, stretching beyond just ATC training and involving many other disciplines across the aviation value chain. In fact, we have trained aviation personnel from around 32 African states, making airspace safer. The specialist nature of ATC training and the current gap within the academic space in providing training for aspiring ATCs means we are the primary providers of such training in the country. We are addressing that by moving the ATC training model into the academic space, through appropriate registration with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and accreditation with the Council on Higher Education (CHE).
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Embracing digital technologies has allowed ATNS to improve its in-house research and development (R&D) processes and the development of a functional product called BONISA, a programme that aims to research ATS display systems to improve situational awareness by providing useful information to the ATCs. The BONISA controller information display (CID) is the first implemented project of the programme. The software is wholly developed by ATNS and the CID is not just aimed at replacing the current digital airfield information display (DAID) systems, but to provide added functionality for the ATCs in line with SESAR, NextGen, 4IR and other international initiatives. The BONISA CID prototype has also been developed using an ATNS R&D-developed informatio
n exchange platform that supports aeronautic and non-aeronautic information exchange and modelling. This platform will become a baseline for ATNS SWIM, and the developed CID software is modular and may be deployed at most South African airports.
Article originally published in Air Traffic Management magazine, issue 2, 2023. Want to receive all of the latest stories as soon as they are published? Register now for your free digital subscription.
