ENAIRE, the national air navigation service provider, has successfully implemented the first iFOCUCS air control posts in the operations room of the Valencia Control Centre, which will help to increase the efficiency of operations.
This new control post is being placed in service as part of the 2025 Flight Plan, within its Digital Sky initiative, a key component of ENAIRE's strategic technological modernisation plan. The new iFOCUCS control post will be deployed gradually in the control centres of Barcelona, Valencia, Canary Islands, Madrid, Seville, Palma, Málaga and Zaragoza. To this end, in April and July 2022 the Council of Ministers authorised an investment of more than 75 million euros to replace 223 posts from which air traffic controllers manage flights in Spanish airspace.
In parallel, the Canary Islands Control Centre has also started the installation of the new control posts.
ENAIRE continues to set the example in global air navigation, as demonstrated by the implementation of the new iFOCUCS control post: “The implementation of the first control posts is the culmination of the enormous effort made in the process of developing and validating the new control posts, and reinforces ENAIRE's initiatives in the field of digitisation and technological modernisation, in keeping with its Strategic Plan, the 2025 Flight Plan”, stated ENAIRE's CEO, Enrique Maurer.
What does the new iFOCUCS post offer?
ENAIRE has developed, together with Indra, the new iFOCUCS station because future versions of the Automated Air Traffic Control System (SACTA) it uses to manage flights make it necessary to incorporate relevant information on new functionalities for control personnel, as well as complementary information to support the controller's work.
Because of this, the new iFOCUCS station will increase the viewing area while maintaining the resolution, allowing controllers to work without paper flight progress strips in the future, all as part of a design concept that is ergonomic and efficient, and intended to enhance the human factors of the controller's position.
Personnel from ENAIRE's technical control and operation/engineering staff were actively involved in its design and development in order to ensure it adapts to the real needs of the service as efficiently as possible.
The project is part of ENAIRE's Strategic Plan - the 2025 Flight Plan - and will contribute to the European Common Project 1 as the first project to deploy the new SACTA and COMETA (IP voice communications system) control station.
The new iFOCUCS post is a key element for enabling the technological evolution of Spain's air traffic control system (SACTA), as part of a global technological partnership within the European iTEC alliance, which will be key to implementing new tools for air traffic control, as well as to improving the efficiency, safety and quality of services, in keeping with the construction of the Digital Single European Sky.
