Inaugural Maverick Awards Winners announced

ATCA (the Air Traffic Control Association) and CANSO (the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation) are honoured to announce the winners for the inaugural Maverick Awards presented by World ATM Congress. The Awards — which received over 100 nominations in this first year — showcase the brightest ideas for the future, recognise positive contributions to the environment and conservation, celebrate cooperation between partners and stakeholders, and promote overall excellence in the aviation industry.

The Collaboration Award recognises the importance of effective relationships and partnerships within/across disciplines and sectors to achieve a shared goal. 

This year’s winner is NATS, NAV CANADA, and Aireon LLC. Aireon’s pioneering global, real-time space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) service was implemented by NATS and NAV CANADA, alongside existing capabilities, to deploy new global air traffic control (ATC) separation standards and create a revised concept of operations for the North Atlantic region. On 27 March 2019, the organisations forever transformed the global airspace by safely and successfully transitioning a new air traffic services surveillance capability—space-based ADS-B together with new ATM tools and ATC separation standards—into live service.

The Innovation Award recognises new ideas, technologies, and concepts that challenge current ATM norms with the potential to significantly advance performance, operations, or capabilities. 

This year’s winner is Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions and Scandinavian Mountains Airport. Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions and Scandinavian Mountains Airport built a state-of-the-art, green-field airport equipped with digital tower services from a remote tower centre in Sundsvall, Sweden. Controllers are now able to provide services on-demand from a digital tower centre shared by three other airports. With Scandinavian Mountains Airport being a seasonal airport, Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions’ remote tower concept is a true enabler for efficient, cost-effective ATC service for the region.

The Sustainability Award recognises leaders, initiatives, and organisations working towards reducing aviation’s impact on the environment and making significant contributions to improving the environmental footprint of aviation through ATM. 

This year’s winner is ENAIRE. ENAIRE, in close collaboration with CRIDA, developed ENAIRE’s PERSEO tool, which generates fuel and emissions savings for every flight to, in turn, be analysed to improve the Spanish air route network. In 2018, ENAIRE controllers saved, through ATC direct clearance, about 7 million nautical miles for flights managed in Spanish airspace, preventing the emission of 243,000 tons of CO2.