CANSO Papers for Thirteenth ICAO Air Navigation Conference

CANSO encourages States to develop robust plans to guide funding priorities and encourage long-term planning and strategic balance for investment in ATM and other infrastructure. ICAO can further help by continuing to promote the separation of regulation from service provision; and by promoting the benefits of allowing ANSPs to act as normal businesses to be free from the uncertainties of government budgets and be able to make the long-term business plans required for ATM.

The industry is working towards a highly interoperable global data environment that supports operational concepts such as trajectory-based operations (TBO); system-wide information management (SWIM); and the safe integration of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) and unmanned aerial systems (UAS). All of these require detailed technical specifications to be harmonised globally. CANSO is therefore asking ICAO to advise standards organisations that their proposals should follow a standard approach to ensure global interoperability.

CANSO is asking regulators to take an approach to regulation based on what is to be achieved. For example, CANSO believes there is no need to change regulatory requirements to accommodate the use of remote / digitised air traffic control towers as remote towers fulfil the same performance requirements as conventional towers; performance indicators would be the same; and the regulatory oversight remains unchanged.

Another transformative new technology about to come on stream is space-based surveillance which will enable tracking of aircraft in remote and oceanic areas not currently covered. CANSO is asking ICAO to support the further embedding of this ATS surveillance capability into existing Standards and Recommended Practices, the Global Air Navigation Plan and guidance materials as another means of surveillance from which to choose.

Aviation systems have become more interconnected and rely on managing and sharing data through initiatives such as system wide information management or SWIM. But this increased interconnectivity is potentially vulnerable to cyber-attack. CANSO advocates: including a commitment to cyber security governance for all phases of SWIM development and deployment; for ICAO to create guidelines for States to ensure the protection layer is proactively managed; for ICAO to advise States on the need to create contingency plans; and to promote information security awareness and training for aviation employees.

CANSO is asking ICAO to develop guidelines: on reducing separation distances and on minimising the temporary flight restrictions that segregate aircraft from rockets during the launch window, without decreasing safety; and on equipage of vehicles and guidance to coordinate their travel through controlled airspace. CANSO believes that space and near space operators should implement safety management systems (SMS) to integrate these vehicles into the aviation system.

The increase in remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has given rise to the development of UAS traffic management (UTM) systems or U-Space in Europe. CANSO is asking ICAO to ensure that UTM is interoperable with existing ATM, can be demonstrated to be at an equivalent level of safety, and comply with the rules of airspace. It is important that UTM systems should not be developed in isolation from current ATM systems. CANSO is also calling for a system to be established so that air traffic management is alerted when a controller loses the radio link to an unmanned aerial vehicle.