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.

The annual World ATM Congress (WAC) event plays host to product demonstrations and launches, contract closures and networking opportunities, together with a busy schedule of conferences and high-level meetings. This year, a total of 225 exhibiting companies and 7,500 delegates from 130 countries took part. Every year, the World ATM Congress brings together around a hundred air navigation service providers (ANSPs), product developers, leaders and experts in the aviation industry, government representatives, manufacturers and industry suppliers from around the world.

Organised by the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) –of which Enaire (formerly Aena) is a founding member and which brings together air navigation service providers from around the world– in partnership with the Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA), an association that represents the air traffic control sector, the World Air Traffic Management Congress is an indispensable event that Ineco has been attending for almost 20 years.

The Galileo system: the brightest star

Galileo is the flagship project of European satellite navigation: a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) that will boast a total of 30 satellites by 2020 –26 of which are already in orbit– managed by the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency (GSA). Galileo is compatible and interoperable with systems such as the US’s GPS and Russia’s GLONASS, and will offer an unprecedented improvement in performance in terms of precision, resilience and robustness.

In 2016, the GSA entrusted its operation and maintenance to a consortium led by Spaceopal for the following 10 years. Spain is part of this consortium, through a group of public enterprises led by Ineco, in partnership with Isdefe and INTA (National Institute of Aerospace Technology). Ineco is in charge of the operation, top level maintenance and management of the hosting services of the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC) located at the INTA’s facilities in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid).

Orderly skies

With a marked international orientation, the air navigation sector moves in a world of extreme safety requirements and resulting advances in new equipment and technologies to ensure this safety.

Since 2007, Ineco has been part of the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) project, which is currently in the deployment phase of unifying space and air traffic control in Europe. In this respect, WAC 2019 played host to SESAR guided walking tours which saw the involvement of Ineco’s aviation experts Pilar Calzón, Víctor Gordo, Fernando Ruiz-Artaza, José Manuel Rísquez, Mercedes López and José Recio. There were also presentations on the integration of small drones and their application in airports and CTR environments by Víctor Gordo, and on the HEDIPRO flight procedure design tool by the engineers Javier Espinosa Aranda and Fernando Carrillo, also from Ineco.

The company has extensive experience in calculating and designing aeronautical charts for the publication of procedures based on PBN, GNSS, GBAS and vertical guidance approaches (APV SBAS), airspace restructuring –such as the restructuring carried out at Spanish airports and in countries of the likes of Egypt and Morocco– and navigation easement studies. Designs of instrumental flight procedures for the international market are also carried out, such as those implemented for the airports of the Sultanate of Oman, Cape Verde and Singapore Changi Airport.

In addition, in partnership with ENAIRE (formerly Aena), Ineco has carried out more than 2,000 radio simulations to assess the impact on airport CNS systems of infrastructures close to airports, such as shopping centres and housing developments, and within the airports themselves, for instance, new terminal buildings and runway extensions. To achieve this, the company uses its own NAVTOOLS proprietary software.

RPAS: all of the guarantees for drone flights

Ineco’s RPAS radio navigation aid verification project, which was presented during WAC 19, is an innovative solution for in-flight recording of radio navigation aid signals and a console on the ground that makes it possible to determine the trajectory flown and quality of guidance provided by the radio navigation aid.

The company is certified to operate and owns a light commercial drone for inspection of bridges and viaducts, and has also acquired a drone with greater capabilities and autonomy able to carry payloads of up to 4 kg, enabling more complex operations to be carried out.

From SACTA to iTEC

In terms of automated air traffic control systems, Ineco has historically worked in collaboration with Enaire and other industry partners on the evolution and development of its control system, known as SACTA, which
was designed entirely by Spanish companies and is a benchmark at the European and global levels. The SACTA and ICARO systems and the ACC voice communication system (COMETA) provide all aeronautical information necessary for air traffic control in Spain and are constantly updated.

The company is currently collaborating with Enaire on the development of a future automated air traffic control system (iTEC). Ineco is also working on another fundamental element for air navigation safety: guaranteeing the quality of the aviation data that ENAIRE collects, publishes and supplies.

On 10 May, the minister of Public Works, Íñigo de la Serna, submitted the Air Navigation Plan for 2017-2020, as the culmination of a long and participative process, opening the way to the progressive implementation of the ENAIRE’s new strategy. The strategic plan, known in ENAIRE as the Flight Plan 2020, is based on the predicted increase in traffic and the measures to be adopted to manage the expected demand for flights, with adequate capacity, efficiency and quality in regard to its customers and stakeholders.

Route charges will drop 11.5% between 2018 and 2020, reducing costs for airlines by 184 million Euros

ENAIRE’s ambition in its new strategy is “to lead the safe, efficient, quality and sustainable delivery of air navigation services in a competitive global environment, to be valued by customers and society, and depend on people as the main engine driving the company”.

To achieve this leadership, the main pillars are a commitment to society in terms of safety and the environment; customer-orientation, with special emphasis on the quality of services; teams committed to a proactive approach and innovation and, as a public business entity, transparency and good governance.

Capacity and efficiency

ENAIRE wants to respond adequately to the capacity requirements in an environment of increasing demand, while also improving airspace efficiency by helping users to optimise the distance flown.

The plan includes redesigning Spanish airspace to improve en-route operations and redesigning terminal areas, especially in Madrid, Barcelona and Palma, to improve operations in airports.

The Free Route concept (free route in the upper airspace), the flexible use of airspace thanks to civil-military coordination and the implementation of new procedures based on satellite technology will further contribute to the achievement of the capacity and efficiency objectives.

Where the investment is going

ENAIRE is Europe’s fourth largest supplier in terms of managed flights in its airspace, which is one of the most extensive in Europe, with 2.2 million square kilometres. The Single European Sky framework makes airspace an increasingly global and more competitive environment, and ENAIRE is focusing its investments, 300 million euros over the next four years, on upgrading and modernizing its air navigation system, incorporating research, development and innovation.

Investments (70.1 million euros in 2017, 73.3 million in 2018, 74.8 million in 2019 and 76.0 million euros in 2020) will be made, among many other aspects, in initiatives such as the following:

• Evolution of the Automated Air Traffic Control System (SACTA, as its acronym in Spanish) with advanced solutions and a new control position harmonized with the principal European suppliers (iTEC project).
• Modernization of voice communication systems between controllers and pilots, incorporating ground-to-air data links.
• Upgrading of navigation and surveillance systems: new precision procedures, state-of-the-art radar (Mode S) and satellite technologies (EGNOS, ADS-B).
• Deployment of a new high-performance data network for information exchange.
• Improvement of the maintenance model for infrastructure and air navigation systems.

More competitive charges

ENAIRE will reduce its route charges by 11.5% between 2018 and 2020 (3.0% in 2018, 4.0% in 2019 and 5.0% in 2020). After 2019, ENAIRE’s route charge will be in the lowest of the major European suppliers. The savings for airlines and, therefore, the improvement of the competitiveness of Spanish air transport, is expected to total 184 million euros.

Environmental benefits

The following environmental benefits will be achieved thanks to the improved efficiency of the 2017-2020 routes: savings of 5.5 million nautical miles, 60,000 tonnes of fuel and 190,000 tonnes of CO2. The fuel cost savings in the period will exceed 25 million euros.

Improving the efficiency of routes will reduce emissions by 190,000 tonnes

In Spain and in the world

ENAIRE provides air traffic services in 22 control towers in Spain’s airports, including the 5 airports with the largest traffic volume and in all airports that offer approach control. It has 307 radio aids, 54 surveillance systems, 130 communications centres, 100 REDAN nodes for voice and data, 94 control tower and approach positions, and 118 route positions.

Beyond Spain’s borders, ENAIRE is actively involved in international consortiums and satellite navigation (ESSP) and satellite surveillance (ADS-B) partnerships. It is also part of the Pan-European Digital Communications Service (NewPENS) until 2028, the European ATM Information Management Service (EAIMS) until 2030, and has opted for new opportunities in satellite data communications (IRIS) services.

ENAIRE’s automatic air traffic control system (SACTA for its acronym in Spanish), is a complex system of local machines and servers, installed in control centres and towers, that share information in real time. SACTA makes it possible to automate the acquisition, processing, distribution and presentation of the data required to carry out air traffic control tasks that form part of the air traffic management (ATM) system. The main objective of ATM is to regulate traffic in a secure and orderly fashion, as well as to ensure that air navigation system capacity can meet the demand. SACTA began providing service in 1990 at Palma de Mallorca’s control centre; nowadays it is the only traffic control system in all of Spain’s airports.

This system carries out the integration, automation and improvement of processes which allow for the control of aircraft that are en route, approaching and near the tower. In this way, information can be coherently processed and the associated air traffic control and management services have the support they need to meet security and service objectives. It is an ever-evolving system, meaning that ENAIRE is constantly perfecting and modernising it.

Ineco has collaborated with ENAIRE since 1998 on the evolution of SACTA, as well as on the automatic system for flight plan, aeronautical and meteorological information (ICARO), by participating in the specifications, design, testing and commissioning of new functionalities. Ineco’s experts are part of system evolution and development in almost all areas, from the design of both functional and hardware architecture requirements, to maintenance and assistance to different ENAIRE users. A broad range of ATM system knowledge is obtained this way, proving extremely useful to the company and facilitating its national and international expansion.

Broadly speaking, the SACTA system makes it possible:

• To provide the controller with all relevant, updated air traffic data, thus facilitating interoperability between control facilities, collateral installations in Spain and abroad, and the CFMU.
• For controllers and technicians to receive training in a dynamic simulation environment.

A modular, redundant design was chosen to deal with such a complex system, thus allowing it to evolve with the least possible disruption to the operation.

Information that is always available to air traffic

The SACTA system, via its subsystems, integrates and provides the following information which is available to air traffic controller at all times:

• Flight plan information: the system is in charge of processing the flight plans received, determining routes and flight profiles. It also guarantees the interoperability of control facilities and foreign agents, making them fully compatible with flight plans that have origins and/or destinations beyond Spain’s borders.
• Flight monitoring: the system makes it possible to identify and obtain the position and information regarding aircraft trajectories in controlled airspace, as well as the capacity to ensure the separation and controlled flow of flights. This information is obtained by integrating data from the radar and sensor network for position within national territory, with the data provided by each aircraft in real time.
• Aeronautical and meteorological information: the system receives and processes meteorological and aeronautical messages (such as SMI, QNH and NOTAM).
• Supervision: the purpose of the system is to monitor, control and configure the HW/SW subsystems, which make up the SACTA system, thus promoting its reliability and integrity.
• Recording and operations: these allow for the analysis and study of operational and technical information.

SACTA SCREEN. The SACTA system determines routes and flight profiles, identifies the position of aircraft and ensures their separation in airspace.

New functionalities

Greater capacity, precision, savings and efficiency

The main purpose of SACTA, as an ATM system in service, is traffic security in all airspace sectors, thus the reason why it is constantly evolving. The automation of processes which are increasingly complex due to the high concentration of flights in European skies is organised, developed and tested alongside ATC personnel. This makes the information received by air traffic controllers through their HMI (Human Machine Interface) accurate and relevant, thus improving and strengthening communication flows with aircraft and different subsystems. The latest SACTA development included a series of functionalities which noticeably improve efficiency in route control, TMA and TWR. Below are the details concerning the most important changes currently being implemented:

• Paperless Operations (OSF for its acronym in Spanish).The flight progress strip is a fundamental tool for air traffic controllers. This little slip of paper contains the essential information about the route or itinerary for each controlled flight. With the use of ‘paperless operations’, aerodrome control management is possible with electronic flight strips. These strips appear on the screen in the same order as the old strips which were organised in bays. This system did not simply replace paper, but it had to be adapted to the different roles performed by tower controllers. Management of traffic in the tower is divided into three different areas of responsibility: Clearance (ATC authorisation and start-up), taxi track (taxi clearance) and Local control (clearance for takeoff and landing); these areas of responsibility can be assigned individually, or several can be integrated into a control position. Accordingly, for each case the electronic flight strip presented will follow its functional cycle in line with the areas of responsibility assigned to each control position. Implementation of paperless operations (OSF), presently at Palma de Mallorca and Malaga airports, immediately resulted in increased efficiency and capacity.
• Air Ground DataLink (AGDL). AGDL implements land-air point-to-point digital communication, allowing for the exchange of information between the aircraft and the Control Centre regarding two different technologies: ATN and FANS. Among other amenities, it provides ADS-C and CPDLC services. Implementation of ADS-C (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Contract), only in the FANS network, represents significant progress in surveillance. It generates periodic reports or variables on request such as aircraft position and speed, using available aviation information as the source, including GPS data. CPDLC technology (Controller-Pilot Data Link Communication) consists in exchanging a series of pre-defined text messages based on a common phraseology between the air traffic controller and the pilot. This technology makes it possible, among other benefits, to accelerate operating instructions and prevent confusion caused by voice dialogues, thus a complementary tool to this technology.
• Collaborative Decision Making (CDM). The CDM project is an operational efficiency improvement tool whose approach is the process of aircraft rotation, based on the philosophy of sharing information that affects flights, among the different actors involved (handling, control, airlines and airport). This information is processed, thus increasing its accuracy and completeness. Reduced wait times and increased efficiency are achieved with this tool. The CDM process involves adapting the procedures that the airport operates with.
• Arrival Manager (AMAN). The Arrival Manager implements calculation of the optimal airport arrival sequence by utilising efficiency criteria to reduce wait times, thus facilitating flight transfer between APP and TWR.
• eCOS/eVEREST. Although it is almost at the end of the list, it represents the most important change in the evolution of system hardware and software in recent years. It involves a redistribution of the system’s core information nodes, thus affecting the overall architecture of the system. It goes from a configuration where the Seville and Palma servers are integrated, in a centralised manner, in Madrid and Barcelona respectively, together with their affected TWR facilities. The impact on the distribution of flight plan, radar, aeronautical and meteorological information is global, but the costs for implementation, commissioning, maintenance and development are reduced. Although it is a big change to the infrastructure, it is not a big change for normal control operations, meaning that it is transparent.
• Phase 2 Configuration (CF2 for its acronym in Spanish). CF2 affords easier operations, based on the aircraft tag that the air traffic controller sees on the screen. This tag displays colour changes or blinking on a global level or in certain fields, some of which are new, depending on the status of the flight plan, transfers between sectors, restrictions and alerts.

The main purpose of SACTA, as an ATM system in service, is to provide the tools which make it possible to guarantee the separation of traffic in all airspace sector. / PHOTO_PABLO NEUSTADT

The environment, which takes centre stage on this autumn’s cover, increasingly influences our projects and activities in Spain and around the world. With the support of Ineco, Ecuador’s capital Quito has launched initiatives to reduce waste and foster a circular economy of resources; this will without a doubt translate into improved welfare and quality of life for the city’s inhabitants.

Public policy is key in the move towards more sustainable cities. We are honoured with the opinion of María Verónica Arias Cabanilla, Environment secretary for the Municipality of Quito, the highest authority for environmental policy in the Ecuadorian capital. The city’s environmental policy includes the ‘Cero Basura’ programme, based on the integrated management of resources; this is an ambitious project in which Ineco was responsible for the Master Plan for Comprehensive Waste Management and its legal framework. This coincides with Quito’s selection by the UN to host the Habitat III Sustainable Cities Conference in October 2016. In addition to this, as Verónica Arias points out in her interview, Quito is Ecuador’s most sustainable city and one of the 17 finalists for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) award for the world’s most sustainable city.

Optimal management of an environmental resource such as the sky is another area of interest that we will address in these pages. Specifically, we have a report dedicated to ENAIRE’s significant technical efforts and investment to guarantee air safety with the highest levels of efficiency. The high concentration of flights in Europe requires a complex new automated air traffic control system: SACTA (so-called for its initials in Spanish) is a series of systems and equipment which ENAIRE is investing over 16 million euros to renovate. Ineco engineers, who are collaborating in the project, offer us a detailed description of the function of these services and what they bring us.

Public policy is key in the necessary move towards more sustainable cities

Also worth highlighting is Ineco’s more than 20 years of experience in supervising the manufacture of trains. This issue features an in-depth article on rolling stock design validation, supervision and testing, particularly in Spain, Chile, Brazil and Colombia, where we have recently renewed our contract.

Finally, I am proud to present the new modernisation project at Chiclayo airport in Peru, where a new terminal is being designed. This large aeronautical project will complement our existing project at Lima’s Jorge Chávez airport. These are big jobs and big challenges in a globalised world where we want to demonstrate the skills and capabilities of Spanish engineering.