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Airservices Australia
Examines Deploying
Space-Based ADS-B
Oct. 5, 2015
Aireon LLC has signed a
Memorandum of Agreement
(MOA) with Airservices
Australia,
Australia's
Air Navigation Service
Provider (ANSP).
Airservices will assess
the concept of Aireon's
space-based Automatic
Dependent
Surveillance-Broadcast
(ADS-B) solution.
Aireon's space-based
ADS-B system will be the
first 100 percent global
air traffic surveillance
solution. AireonSM
will enable real-time
air traffic surveillance
everywhere in the world,
including full coverage
over oceans, mountains,
remote areas and polar
regions.
The Aireon ADS-B
solution will facilitate
smooth transition with
neighboring Flight
Information Regions
(FIR) while also
lowering ground
infrastructure costs,
reducing costs to
airlines and improving
airspace safety. The
solution, utilizing
ADS-B receivers
launching as part of the
Iridium NEXT satellite
constellation, is
expected to be operative
by 2018.
Leading ANSP Airservices
Australia manages air
traffic control,
aviation rescue and air
navigation services for
over 20 million square
nautical miles (51.7
million square
kilometers) of airspace.
This includes commanding
air traffic operations
for over 90 million
passengers on more than
four million flights
every year.
Airservices has been
operationally separating
aircraft with ADS-B for
a decade and became the
first ANSP to commission
a continent-wide ADS-B
system. It now has more
than 60 percent of
Australia-based
aircraft IFR flights
ADS-B equipped. That
number is slated to
increase due to
Australia's
safety regulator, the
Civil Aviation Safety
Authority (CASA),
mandating that all IFR
aircraft flying in
Australia's
airspace be ADS-B
equipped by
February 2017.
According to
Greg Hood,
Executive General
Manager Air Traffic
Control, Airservices
Australia, "We are
interested in examining
how space-based ADS-B
could potentially be
used in the future and
will work with Aireon to
determine the potential
safety benefits of the
technology and
efficiency benefits it
may offer for our
customers, especially
for oceanic services and
in cross-boundary
coordination with our
neighbors."
"There is potential for
space-based ADS-B to
offer value not only to
Airservices, but for all
of our customer
airlines, airports and
search and rescue teams
and we are keen to
explore that in further
detail."
"Airservices operates,
maintains and controls
over 11 percent of the
world's airspace, much
of which is oceanic,"
said
Cyriel Kronenburg,
vice president, Aireon.
"Airservices has always
been a leader in
investing in
best-in-class systems
and an early adopter of
technology to not only
improve efficiency and
reduce separation, but
also increase safety. Airservices
and Aireon will
collaborate to examine
the value of space-based
ADS-B. Also, by gaining
a better understanding
of how Aireon's system
will improve operations,
they will also be able
to consider the savings
that the service may
provide."
Airservices joins a
growing list of ANSPs,
airlines and regulators
who are exploring the
use of Aireon's
space-based ADS-B
surveillance system.
Aireon is currently
working with UK NATS,
the Agency for Aerial
Navigation Safety in
Africa and
Madagascar,
Airports Authority of
India,
Civil Aviation Authority
of
Singapore,
Blue Med Functional
Airspace Block, the U.S.
Federal Aviation
Administration, Airways
New Zealand and Isavia.
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