Drones are just one facet of a challenge
associated to increasing capacity – the
diversification of air space users. Air traffic
will not include just commercial airliners,
private jets and military aircraft in the future,
but will also include air taxis, delivery
drones, persistent near-space platforms,
more heritage aircraft and more space
launches. “They are all airspace users and we
have to ensure that they all work safely
together. There is perhaps more
diversification than there has been in the
past, but we are more than equipped to deal,”
says Hocquard
Solutions are being developed. UTMservice
providers are looking at separating
out and managing drones at lower levels of
airspace, below 400ft. Meanwhile CANSO is
working to minimize the safety area that is
required when space launches take place,
track commercial spacecraft, training
controllers on the characteristics of
spacecraft and modifying ATM software to
process and display those spacecraft.
Collaboration
Hocquard is clear on his and CANSO’s
priorities: modernisation, pushing regulators
for more effective regulation based on
performance for new technology, advocating
for ATM integration and global
interoperability and promoting
understanding of how the industry can meet
the challenges it faces.
He sees the route to achieving these goals
as more collaboration between members and
stakeholders. For example, CANSO recently
signed an agreement with IATA to enhance
airspace capacity. “Collaboration is massively
important to the future of the industry,” he
says. “Great things are rarely achieved by
individuals – memorable things are often
achieved by working with others.”
However, Hocquard accepts that achieving
greater collaboration throughout the world is
far from straightforward. Issues such as the
sovereignty of airspace and the importance
10 AIR TRAFFIC TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 2020
of protecting military airspace can prevent
change from happening.
“To ensure you can fly seamlessly to
anywhere in the world you need a network
approach, which accepts there are large flows
of traffic across different states and reduces
the importance of independently-made,
inward-looking decisions which do not serve
the greater good of the network,” he says.
“To achieve that we have to bring the
networks of information and interoperability
together. That’s difficult to make happen but
it is possible.” v
INTERVIEW
ALL AROUND THE WORLD
One of the aims of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) is to bring all members to the
same high standards for safety and operations. However, di erent regions have di erent requirements. “I
want CANSO to be more regionally focused and to be able to deliver what each region needs the most,”
says Simon Hocquard, director general of CANSO.
“Africa is concentrating on air tra ic flow management over the continent, along with improving safety.
In Asia Pacific they are also looking at air tra ic flow management, but because of the complexity of the
airspace there and the geography and high demand, their approach has to be di erent.
“In Europe the focus of our work is advocacy on the latest rules and regulations, ANSPs there don’t
necessarily need help with technical implementation.
“In Latin America and the Caribbean, we are working at growing the membership. It’s a huge continent
with great variation in how operations are carried out. Flow management is being addressed there and
it’s about bringing people together. In the Middle East there is lots of growth and the challenge is getting
people to work together.
“The key is enabling regions to learn from each other,” he says.
Often this can be achieved by simply facilitating the transfer of technical expertise, “If there is an expert
in Europe can we get them to Singapore for the Asia Pacific conference to help them with a particular
challenge,” he adds
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