MITMA Group companies, including Ineco, have joined the STEAM Alliance for female talent. On 9 February, the signing ceremony of the protocol took place with the Ministers of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda and Education and Vocational Training, Raquel Sánchez and Pilar Alegría, respectively, and the presidents of Adif, Renfe, ENAIRE, Aena, Puertos del Estado and Ineco, Sergio Vázquez (third from the left). 

Under the slogan ‘Girls in Science’, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training is promoting this initiative in the public and private sectors to “encourage the interest of girls and young women in disciplines related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics” (STEAM).

Supporting the STEAM vocations of girls and women in education is a priority issue not only for the United Nations, which includes it in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but also for the European Union and the government of Spain, which has included it in the Digital Spain 2025 Agenda. Meanwhile, Ineco has made equality one of the pillars of its strategic business plan.

The HISPAFRA project aims to implement the concept of free route airspace (FRA) within Spain. At the European level, the FRA initiative is promoted and coordinated by Eurocontrol, in accordance with the stipulations of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/116 of 1 February 2021. It is a nationwide project in which Ineco is supporting the ENAIRE Director of Operations and helping to coordinate all of the bodies involved, which include the General Directorate of Civil Aviation, the National Air Safety Agency, the Spanish Air Force and ENAIRE. 

Until now, airlines and airspace users have defined their flight plans using a network of waypoints and segments published in aeronautical charts. The pre-pandemic growth in air traffic across Europe has meant that this network of segments and flight paths has become more expansive and complex. In turn, this has made it possible to manage air traffic within the capacity of the network without impacting negatively on safety.

Free route airspace is a concept in which airspace users are able to draw up flight plans in line with their companies’ interests, and freely establish connections between waypoints within a particular volume of airspace without reference to the existing published routes. However, they must still adhere to certain rules with regard to connectivity between the waypoints in question. The concept can be compared to the experience of a driver at a junction with traffic lights and a junction with a roundabout: while the traffic lights oblige the driver to stop completely, at the roundabout the traffic flows more freely and the driver can choose where to exit, in accordance with certain pre-defined rules. Although the FRA concept does not imply the absence of rules, it does allow for greater dispersal of air traffic in comparison to structured airspace (thereby reducing “traffic jams”) and offers users greater flexibility when planning the optimum route between waypoints within the airspace. In turn, this enables them to plan flights that are more efficient, flexible and environmentally sustainable.

Entry, exit and intermediate points in free route airspace. MAP_ENAIRE

However, the increased flexibility in flight planning offered by the FRA concept results in greater dispersal of flight routes and increased uncertainty as to where conflicts that require controllers to separate the aircraft may occur. For this reason, and when dealing with complex airspaces, the FRA concept explored by the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) initiative recommends that  user defined segments should be based on published waypoints in high complexity airspaces (although the routes free route segments themselves do not need to be published) and controllers should be supported with advanced conflict-detection tools, as the aircraft’s whereabouts are no longer as predictable as they would be in structured airspace. 

The FRA concept only applies during the flight plan stage, i.e. before the plane has left the ground. Once the flight plan has been submitted and approved, the flight becomes subject to that plan and to authorisation from air traffic control (ATC), which will continue to ensure that the aircraft remain separated from each other (as it does at present).

The HISPAFRA project aims to implement the concept of free route airspace (FRA) within Spain. At the European level, the FRA initiative is promoted and coordinated by EUROCONTROL. / PHOTO_INECO

the phases of hispafra

The implementation of HISPAFRA has been divided into different phases: in each phase the restrictions become more flexible and new functionalities are incorporated into the control system, while maintaining appropriate levels of capacity and safety. The European regulations stipulate that the initial phase must be implemented before 31 December 2022 and the final stage by December 2025, along with a cross-border element involving at least one other Member State. After this date, rollout of the FRA concept will continue and there will be greater cross-border implementation between Member States, thereby enabling a more flexible European airspace and more efficient planning on the part of airlines. 

For phase 1 of HISPAFRA, two FRA cells have been defined: the continental cell, comprising the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands; and the Canary Islands cell. These cells will enter into force on 21 April 2022. 

Existing published routes will not be eliminated during this initial phase; rather, airspace users will have the additional option of drawing up FRA plans that make use of these existing routes. This will enable the transition towards a free route approach for all, without changing the way in which ATC operates and with the aim of maintaining the same levels of capacity and safety, while enabling users to gradually adapt their systems in preparation for the subsequent phases. 

Looking ahead to these subsequent phases, in which free connection between a greater number of waypoints will gradually become more flexible, ENAIRE is developing and deploying a series of new functionalities for its ATC system. These functionalities enable controllers to determine, ahead of time and with increased precision, whether a particular flight level or direct route presents an air traffic risk, prior to granting ATC clearance for separation provision. Examples of the tools available include Medium-Term Conflict Detection (MTCD) and Tactical Trajectory Management (TTM).

more flexible planning

Collaboration has also begun on the study process for the subsequent phases of the HISPAFRA project. While still allowing airlines to prepare flight plans in structured airspace or FRA, and without making changes to the ATC system, the aim is to make the connection between certain FRA waypoints more flexible (whether within the same control centre or between different control centres) in comparison to existing structured routes, thereby gradually expanding the range of planning options available to users.

Over time, HISPAFRA will introduce more flexible planning options, while making changes to the ATC system in order to be able to detect conflicts. This will allow users greater flexibility, while maintaining appropriate levels of capacity and safety.

Although the FRA concept does not imply the absence of rules, it does allow for greater dispersal of air traffic in comparison to structured airspace, thereby reducing “traffic jams”

Finally, the project will introduce the possibility of eliminating restrictions with  at  least  one  neighbouring  state (so-called ‘cross-border FRA’), thereby enabling users to plan flights between different Member States as though they shared a single airspace. To achieve this, the ATC system for each Member State must have interoperability functionalities, adapted in line with the FRA concept.

Airspace is changing, and Ineco is at the forefront of these changes with a team of experts that are helping to define the  FRA significant points, the FRA concept of operations, the ATC system requirements, and the implications these developments may have for the ATC procedures to keep  safety at sustainable levels within the context of the increasingly air traffic demand.

Supported by Ineco

PHOTO_PIQSELS.COM

Since 2019, the company has helped ENAIRE to implement HISPAFRA by carrying out a range of actions:

• Publication of FRA information via AIP (Aeronautical Information Publication), in accordance with the implementation guides provided in EUROCONTROL’s ERNIP (European Route Network Improvement Plan) and in coordination with all of the actors affected by the change. 
• Collaboration with ENAIRE’s Director of Operations on the development of tools for the automated transition (during this initial phase, owing to the large volume of data for the current structure) towards the definition of HISPAFRA points (in AIP Spain) and the rules governing the restrictions on flexible connection to these points, via direct entry in the Route Availability Document (RAD). 
• Support for the changes introduced by the reviewers and the discoveries made during the pre-validation processes carried out on EUROCONTROL’s systems, prior to the implementation of HISPAFRA. 
• Support for the maintenance and updating of the operational concept for HISPAFRA, and attending (and preparing materials for) internal and external coordination meetings. 
• Support for coordination with the ATC centres of neighbouring Member States, so that the internal operational documentation for ATC is in line with the operational concept for HISPAFRA. 

Ineco has contributed to the implementation of the first stage of HISPAFRA: a nationwide project involving the General Directorate of Civil Aviation, the National Air Safety Agency, the Chief of Staff of the Spanish Air Force, and ENAIRE. The project’s aim is to implement the free route concept –which involves freely planning routes between predefined points with minimal restrictions– in Spanish airspace. The benefits of this approach include a reduction in emissions, fuel consumption and controller workload. The rollout of HISPAFRA at the European level has been divided into four stages, the last of which will come to an end in December 2025.

We glimpse a new stage after a long period of pandemic that we are beginning to overcome thanks to the effort, resilience and exemplary behaviour that we have shown as a society, expressing our special thanks to all those who form part of Ineco.

In this context of a gradual return to normality, we are continuing our roadmap with the aim of making an effective contribution to improving people’s quality of life. Against this background, in this new edition we take an in-depth look at four recent works carried out in our country that are firmly committed to making further progress towards this goal. The new maritime station of Ceuta, designed by our architectural and engineering teams, is an efficient technical and architectural solution that significantly improves the comfort and functionality of the building, organises traffic flows and reinforces its security. This is clearly a major benefit for the more than two million people who use these facilities every year.

In the aerospace field, we learn about the main developments at ENAIRE from its General Director, Ángel Luis Arias, who provides us with highly relevant information on the company’s new strategy, in which social, environmental, safety and technological aspects are becoming increasingly important.

We glimpse a new stage after a long period of pandemic that we are beginning to overcome thanks to the effort, resilience and exemplary behaviour that we have shown as a society

From a transport and land mobility perspective, Josep Vicent Boira, Government Commissioner for the Mediterranean Corridor, provides interesting data on the development of the Cartographic Viewer of the Mediterranean Corridor, a cutting-edge tool that is extremely useful for monitoring the progress of this infrastructure, a key connection with Europe. We also report on the work to adapt the tunnels of the Directorate-General for Roads of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda to European regulations.

On the international front, we focus on Africa, Europe, Latin America and Oceania. Aeronautical solutions on two Cape Verde islands, field work for our client Rail Baltica in Latvia, the latest studies carried out for Aerocivil de Colombia at El Dorado airport, as well as the ongoing railway signalling work in Australia, highlight the important role played by Ineco equipment throughout the world.

The commitment to Spanish engineering talent, through the promotion and transmission of knowledge provided by the company’s training programmes; the promotion of social and innovative action with tools such as the TEAcompaño  mobile application –which improves accessibility to air transport for children with ASD– and the commitment to environmental sustainability, led by our team specialising in noise pollution, round up the contents of this edition, which we share with all our readers.

If EUROCONTROL’s most optimistic forecasts hold true, air traffic will not recover to 2019 levels until 2024. Now that the workload has decreased, are they taking advantage of this situation to implement new technologies?

ENAIRE’s Strategic Plan 2021-2025, the so-called Flight Plan 2025, has been developed taking into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the transformation taking place in the air navigation sector. The ultimate goal is to emerge stronger from this terrible crisis that has hit the airline industry so hard.

Flight Plan 2025 has a strong international focus and aims to promote the modernisation of ENAIRE through technological and digital transformation and cultural and organisational change, with the intensive participation and involvement of our professionals and stakeholders. This plan proposes air mobility in its threefold dimension as a human right, an element of social cohesion and a lever for economic growth.

Thus, apart from strengthening safety as a main strategic priority, it states that the scalability and resilience of services must ensure economic sustainability, improving the efficiency, productivity and flexibility of the organisation and the quality of services, optimising the use of resources and taking advantage of all the available technological improvements that we are already developing and implementing.

What investments will ENAIRE make in the 2021-2025 period?

We have planned, and are already implementing, a major investment plan to digitalise and comprehensively modernise Spanish air navigation technology in line with the requirements of the Single European Sky (SESAR programme) and to embark upon development and internationalisation efforts in order to become a global services operator.

Between 2021 and 2025, ENAIRE will invest more than 100 million euros per year, with the most significant investment of 172.4 million euros in 2022. The total investment amount for the period is 737 million euros.

737 million euros will be invested to modernise Spanish air navigation and become a global operator

They have further reduced charges, their main source of income. What are your turnover forecasts for 2021?

En-route charges have actually been lowered again in 2021, to 11% on the mainland and 8.5% in the Canary Islands, which were already among the lowest, again as a measure to support airlines in this second year of the pandemic.

In terms of our revenue, we believe that the 2021 charge reductions may be offset by the increase in traffic in 2021 over 2020, but we do not expect our 2021 revenue to exceed 50% that of 2019.

In truth, our forecasts are that ENAIRE will not recover its 2019 turnover before 2024, although this will be heavily influenced by the evolution of the health and economic crisis and its consequent impact on air traffic.

What is the ‘Green Sky’ project and what new measures to reduce carbon emissions would you highlight?

Flight Plan 2025 considers environmental sustainability as a fundamental issue that must be tackled in conjunction with the recovery of the air transport sector. ‘Green Sky’ is the name of ENAIRE’s sustainability strategy for the 2021-2025 period.

‘Green Sky’ is based on three basic lines of action, two of which are specifically aimed at climate action, and a third one aimed at reducing other impacts on the environment. ENAIRE contributes to the fight against climate change, firstly, by reducing atmospheric emissions associated with air transport through the actions contained in the ‘Fly Clean’ programme, which aims to optimise our air route network and reduce the distances flown and aircraft fuel consumed.

A second programme, called ‘Eco-Enaire’, contributes to the reduction of ENAIRE’s own emissions through an ambitious plan for energy efficiency and self-consumption of renewable energies. Similarly, our sustainability strategy includes a specific programme, called ‘Fly Quiet’, with the aim of reducing the acoustic impact on the airport’s surrounding populations and protected natural areas.

The widespread use of virtual networks has increased cyber-attacks, have you been affected, and what protective measures are being taken in the aviation sector?

Remote working has received a strong backing that has brought it to the forefront of the social and labour market. The communication and remote access infrastructure, which was already in place and fully functional, as well as different collaborative tools, have seen their use increase exponentially, strengthening in terms of capacity and infrastructure. All of this, of course, while applying rigorous security measures to guarantee the integrity and confidentiality of information, as well as the availability of the associated services, in full compliance with the Certification of Conformity with the National Security Scheme, for which we have been awarded the highest category.

Thanks to all of this, despite having observed an increase in cyber-attacks during the pandemic, ENAIRE has continued to provide its services in accordance with its commitments to security, quality and efficiency, without suffering any incident with a negative impact on its operations.

Flight Plan 2025 considers environmental sustainability as a fundamental issue that must be tackled in conjunction with the recovery of the air transport sector. ‘Green Sky’ is the name of ENAIRE’s sustainability strategy for the 2021-2025 period

In January 2023, the new European ‘U-Space’ regulation on drones will enter into force. What advantages will ENAIRE’s ‘U-Space’ platform offer?

The ‘U-Space’ platform will improve the safety and efficiency of operations by providing enhanced situational awareness (i.e. operators/pilots will be able to be aware, in real time, of drones flying in the vicinity, with the ability to see them on their screens at all times). This is very important as even in Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) flights there are situations where it is difficult to tell whether our drone is sufficiently far away from another drone in the vicinity. All of this is a simple but fundamental example of how to increase the safety.

All of the automation and digitalisation involved in the platform will also be very useful. This will make flight planning much more streamlined, efficient and safe, while greatly reducing the number of operational coordinations that our professionals have to perform.

It will also provide other benefits such as ensuring people’s privacy. We will be able to know for sure that the drones flying around us are legal drones, operated by professionals. This is also something that our platform will provide through the Network e-Identification service. This will enable law enforcement agencies to monitor the drones they are flying at all times.

In their recovery plan, they have emphasised communication and cooperation between the company and its professionals. What are these measures?

ENAIRE is an organisation that has long been committed to ensuring the well-being of the people that make up its workforce. Accordingly, since 2020 ENAIRE has sought to reinforce this approach to support its leaders and teams. A very important part of the Flight 2025 Plan focuses on promoting cultural transformation, diversity management, talent, conciliation, project orientation, team promotion etc. In short, on achieving a working relationship committed both to sustainability and growth and to the personal and professional progress of all its employees.

In November 2020, Eurocontrol published three scenarios for air transport recovery, all of which are linked to the evolution of the pandemic and the progress of vaccination efforts. In the most optimistic scenario, it predicted that traffic would return to 2019 levels by 2024.

The Spanish national air navigation manager and Aena’s main shareholder has faced the challenge of the decline in air traffic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic with the implementation of several lines of action: ENAIRE’s new business strategy, Flight Plan 2025 takes up the baton from Flight Plan 2020 (see ITRANSPORTE 60) and focuses on the recovery of the aeronautical sector and communication and cooperation between the company and its employees.

Among the first emergency measures, ENAIRE took the decision to drastically reduce its air traffic control charges at the end of 2020. The Spanish mainland en-route charge was reduced from 51.08 euros in 2020 to 45.44 euros in 2021, a decrease of 11%. Likewise, the en-route charge in the Canary Islands, which had already been lowered previously and is already lower than on the mainland, has also been reduced from 43.73 euros to 40 euros, a drop of 8.5%. According to the company’s data, Spain dropped its mainland en-route charges by 26% and those of the Canary Islands by 20% in 2020 and 2021, providing important support to the aviation sector during these years of crisis. Through these measures, ENAIRE aims to contribute to the recovery of air traffic in the face of its worst crisis in history due to the effects of Covid-19, to reduce costs for airlines and to help reduce ticket prices for end-users of flights.

ENAIRE’s Operational Plan, approved in February 2021, foresees an investment of 127.1 million euros this year for technological and airspace transformation. Among the main priorities are safety, Digital Sky, environmental sustainability, development of new strategic services, innovation and transformation 5.0. With the implementation of these initiatives, Enaire seeks to make counter-cyclical and transformative investments that will enable it to emerge stronger from times of crisis.

OPPORTUNITY FOR TRANSFORMATION. ENAIRE’s roadmap prioritises safety, the Digital Sky, environmental sustainability, the development of new strategic services, innovation and the 5.0 transformation. With the implementation of these initiatives, ENAIRE seeks to make counter-cyclical and transformative investments that will enable it to emerge stronger from times of crisis. / PHOTO_ENAIRE

One of the main pillars of ENAIRE’s roadmap for the coming years is digital transformation, a field for which the Council of Ministers authorised, in April 2021, the tendering of contracts for investments in business management application development projects for an amount of more than 28 million euros to be spread over two years. With this investment, ENAIRE aims to increase the productivity and efficiency of processes, improve the satisfaction of internal and external users through the use of technological tools, and facilitate and speed up administrative procedures through the digitalisation of processes.

Enaire also has a budget of two million euros for the development of its U-Space platform in Spain. This development will enable them to provide services for the automated management of drone operations beyond line-of-sight range, in specific reserved spaces called ‘U-space’ and, most importantly, in a centralised manner via CIS (Common Information Services). These services are essential to safely support drone operations when the new European U-Space regulation comes into force in January 2023. The company also participates in various European programmes such as the AMU-LED project conducted with drones, within the framework of SESAR, or the DACUS project, in which European companies and institutions participate. Ineco is also involved in these projects.

Reducing the environmental impact of each flight is a priority issue for the EU, which is counting on SESAR’s high-tech initiatives to modernise the sector and achieve a better flight planning leading to reduced emissions and noise pollution, and optimised energy efficiency. ENAIRE has been collaborating with the European SESAR project since it began in 2008. Since then, the company has participated in around a hundred projects (the programme consists of more than 300), assuming a leading role in 16 of them.

Furthermore, as a collaborating company with the United Nations Global Compact, Enaire has joined REDI, the Business Network for LGBTI Diversity and Inclusion in 2021 within the framework of the Protocol signed on 29 June by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA) with the aforementioned association. This initiative is part of the commitment to the implementation of equality and human rights as defined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda, to which the company is firmly committed.

Four European cities –Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Cranfield in the United Kingdom, Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands– will serve as test sites for the AMU-LED urban drone project, which forms part of the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme and the SESAR (Single European Sky) initiative.

Ineco is a member of the consortium of 16 companies and organisations, led by Everis, that is managing the project, which began in January. Its fellow members include: Airbus, AirHub, Altitude Angel, ANRA Technologies, Boeing Research & Technology-Europe, FADA-CATEC, Cranfield University, EHang, ENAIRE, Gemeente Amsterdam, ITG, Jeppesen, NLR, Space53 and Tecnalia.

Over the next two years, more than 100 hours of flight time will be logged for different types of drones, scenarios and applications, including:  air taxis, cargo transport, delivery of medical equipment and goods, infrastructure inspection, police surveillance and emergency services support. The results will make it possible to evaluate the impact of unmanned vehicles on urban mobility, while providing information that is of great use to regulatory authorities.

The drone industry continues to grow year after year, and Ineco is active in different fields related to the industry, principally in regulatory issues and air traffic. Ineco experts, Víctor Gordo from CNS/ATM Systems and Javier Carvajal from the Smart Products department (in the picture, during their presentation), gave a presentation on smart cities and drones at Expodrónica 2020, which was held virtually in September.

Elsewhere, Ineco is involved in DACUS (Demand and Capacity Optimisation in U-space), which aims to develop a service-oriented demand and capacity balancing process for drone traffic management, integrating tools with predictions based on Artificial Intelligence. Ineco will develop a dynamic capacity model based on collision risk in this proposal led by CRIDA and ENAIRE, with EUROCONTROL, BR&T Europe, ISA, JEPP, Darmstadt Technical University (TUDA), SSG, Toulouse Metropole and AHA (Netgengid ehf) completing the consortium.

Ineco supported ENAIRE in the roll-out and commissioning of the new voice communications system for the control tower at Palma de Mallorca airport (in the picture), completed in June.

The new dual system, that ensures communication between air traffic controllers and pilots, uses digital Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to manage air traffic. It provides features that allow integration of services with the REDAN data network, improve interoperability of systems and the availability of services in the event of an incident.

For the first time, the Spanish air traffic control system (SACTA) screens have been used remotely for verification and validation tasks. Since the declaration of the state of alarm and the beginning of the lockdown, ENAIRE implemented a work method so that its engineers could continue the testing at the Experimentation and Development Centre remotely. This enabled the ATM Automation and Development areas, as well as the group of air traffic controllers that defined the functionality (the SACTA iTEC Operating Group), to run ENAIRE’s first remote validation with the participation of the Ineco engineers who provide service in these areas.