Airbus selects AVTECH Sweden AB as partner SESAR transformation

Posted by John McHale
TOULOUSE, France, 24 Jan. 2011. Airbus, as part of its work on the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) program, selected AVTECH in Akersberga, Sweden as its associated partner in the SESAR Joint Undertaking (JU) organization based in Brussels, Belgium. AVTECH's tools and systems are creating operational efficiency and environmental effects which have become the baseline for designing new procedures where the use of the aircraft performance is taking advantage digital technology.
"This transition from analog, rule-based operations to digital, performance-based operations will make it possible to continuously improve operational efficiency and reduce the effects on the environment. It's a new paradigm in aviation," says David Alvord, AVTECH chief executive officer. "The European Commission highlighted in a recent paper the importance of SESAR for European industry as the need for modernization is global. This is even more true for a company of AVTECH's size, collaborating with Airbus who is an industrial leader is an honor and a privilege which gives AVTECH an opportunity to continue to develop and expand both in Stockholm and Toulouse."
Through this associated partnership AVTECH has commenced work on three different work packages within SESAR JU. Work Package 16.6.6 which aims at collecting, modeling and summarizing information to support business case development and stakeholder buy-in. Work Package 16.6.3 focuses on supporting various projects in executing their own environmental assessments then contributing to the environmental case as part of a CBA. Work Package 3 whose tasking is to define, develop, and deploy infrastructure that will validate SESAR Systems.
The transformation of national airspace to multinational Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB) has started, but that is not enough, the whole system of managing air traffic needs to change, Avtech officials say. Old analog technologies have to be replaced by new digital technologies that allow pilots and air traffic controllers to give the passengers a predictable service at lower cost with higher efficiency, while lowering noise and emissions.
This is the biggest challenge ever to European air transport and to make it possible the European Union, Eurocontrol, and industry have come together investing 2.1 billion Euros to develop and implement the new systems and ways of working. Single European Sky ATM Research Joint Undertaking or SESAR JU is the entity in which now 1,400 engineers in seventeen countries are working.