Following the first ever meeting of the Complete Air Traffic (CATS) System Global Council last week, industry leaders from across the aviation and aerospace industries are creating a blueprint for safely integrating all airspace users into future skies.
Initiated by the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) last December, the Global Council is an independent forum, which unites airports, airlines, air navigation service providers (ANSPs), UTM service providers, aircraft manufacturers, drone operators and manufacturers, space agencies, high-tech companies and regulatory authorities with the goal of building a vision for the skies together.
“Until now, each of us has been working on our agenda,” said Simon Hocquard, Director General, CANSO. “ANSPs have been focused on an air traffic management vision of the future, drone operators have been concerned with unmanned traffic management, and space explorers have their vision for space flight.” What was missing, he said, was “an aligned vision for total traffic management.”
CATS Global Council aims to change this by transforming how all airborne vehicles are accommodated safely, efficiently and sustainably.
“How do we march into the future? How do we capitalise on the big and exciting opportunities in front of us?” asked Richard Parker, CEO, Altitude Angel.
Margaret Nagle, Head of Policy and Government Affairs responded saying: “What we’re doing hasn’t been done before, so we don’t have all the answers and that”s OK. This Council is a great opportunity for us to learn from one another and focus on the problems we need to solve today while creating a future framework that will enable innovation,”
Meanwhile, Jean Ferre, General Manager and Vice-President Airspace Mobility Solutions at Thales commented, “With this Council we have a unique opportunity to come together as a key driving force of the aviation ecosystem, take ownership and propose an agenda of radical change.”
