The myth of ATM innovation

On 16 July 2025, CANSO and the International Centre for Aviation Innovation (ICAI) signed a memorandum of cooperation to strengthen their relationship as partners in innovation. 

Innovation means change, and change can be difficult.  While the power loom transformed textile production during the Industrial Revolution, it also triggered protests and rioting from traditional hand weavers.  In 1826, 3,000 rioters in Lancashire destroyed over 1,000 power looms.  Innovation is not just a technical challenge.  It is also a social, and sometimes political, struggle. 

Innovation can be especially challenging in ATM which has a reputation for being conservative and territorial.  The history and state of ATM in the region are evidence of the glacier pace of change.  It is common to see ANSPs struggling alone with their domestic difficulties.  This is a region where taking collective actions have yet to come of age.

Can we then be sure there will be returns from resources committed to innovation?  Is ATM innovation only a pipe dream?  

However, the anaemic state of ATM is exactly why innovation is most needed.  Neither is it true that Asia Pacific ATM is congenitally uncreative.  Innovation does not have to be ground-breaking; it can be incremental or just a quiet remedy to a problem.  The adoption of a distributed, multi-nodal approach to ATFM when the region was not ready for a more ideal form of ATFM is innovative.  Even a change in business model is innovation.  One good example is the implementation of the Common Aeronautical Virtual Private Network in the region which allows secure communications over the internet.  Significantly, it is a managed service by a service provider selected through a collective tender. 

Nonetheless, innovation may be getting more difficult.  Roy Rothwell, a pioneer scholar on innovation, has discerned five generations of innovation in firms.  The first generation is from technology push, the second is from market pull, while the third is from a coupling of both technology and market.  The fourth generation of innovation comes from the integration of functions and parallel developments within a firm.  The fifth generation shifts applications to extensive horizontal and vertical alliances.  He calls this the strategic integration and networking mode of innovation which envisages a multi-actor, digitally enabled network. 

Most of us will appreciate how social networking platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn have enhanced our personal reach and connections.  Long before digital platforms, there was people-to-people networking, something often undervalued in a goal-oriented world.  This is what CANSO offers – a platform to build trust among stakeholders for collective actions.  After all, the biggest obstacle to ideas taking shape is sometimes people.  The gate to success is often narrow because of the interplay of mercurial ego dynamics. 

We need to innovate the way we do innovation.  Understanding what motivates others is the beginning of change.  Networking allows sourcing of ideas from diverse parties which can be creatively combined.  This partnership between CANSO and ICAI is a step in the right direction, signifying a networking mode of innovation. 

ICAI has already reached out to CANSO members about its Regional Collaboration Platform – an open, cloud-based sandbox with built-in tools and representative data, that allows multiple stakeholders to test out new operational methods or scenarios.  It is like a multiplayer game, and certainly a fun way to interact.  This is especially pertinent in regional ATM.

A networking approach to innovation is befitting of the ever-present cross boundary challenges in ATM.  Many of the larger challenges in regional ATM can be traced to the original sin of fragmented skies.  They cannot be solved by technology alone, and some tensions will have to be managed through policy innovation. 

Imagine ATM in a region with ubiquitous system sharing and seamless operations.  We dream of an ecosystem that allows digital technology to enable quick capability deployment, transparency and equity.  ATM innovation should have an end goal, something audacious that inspires, and not just tinkering a series of random problems.  The ultimate innovation is a Magna Carta equivalent for regional ATM, that will subject individual ANSPs to a set of higher regional principles, delivering collective performance.  It will create a digitally joined-up region, operating in a post-sovereign aviation order. 

Elpis means hope in Greek.  Most of us would have heard about Pandora from the Pandora’s Box in Greek mythology, but few would know about Elpis.  Pandora was given a box with explicit instructions never to open it, but she did and released evils into the world.  However, Elpis who personified hope, remained in the box.  Hope persists. 

The larger our ambition, the longer is the journey, the stronger must our faith be.  Sometimes myth resonates more powerfully than reality.  ATM innovation is not a pipe dream, it is our Elpis.  The myth will become a legend, one day.