Five air navigation service providers collaborate in first-ever Multi-regional project to jointly manage cross-regional air traffic

The air navigation service providers (ANSPs) of Canada, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and the United States have worked together to successfully conclude a lab demonstration of the world’s first-ever multi-regional trajectory-based operations (TBO), a big step forward in making cross-regional air traffic management a reality.

Currently, ANSPs provide air navigation services to aircraft separately and independently, only as and when aircraft traverse within the Flight Information Region(s) under their respective responsibility. Under TBO, ANSPs jointly plan and optimise, from departure to landing, an aircraft’s entire flight trajectory across regions and countries, taking into account conditions such as weather, aerial activities, airspace closures and traffic. Multi-regional TBO is expected to fundamentally change the way air traffic is managed and yield significant benefits by improving safety and efficiency; minimising delays and disruptions; cutting travel cost and time; and reducing fuel burn and carbon emissions.