Innovative technology and solutions are at the forefront of every aviation event of recent years. The aviation landscape is changing; more driven by big data, digitalisation and virtualisation are amongst the innovative solutions bringing new perspective to the business. The European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) and ACI EUROPE are closely cooperating in the standardisation of aviation technologies and their impact on airport operations. Report by Christian Schleifer.
As an aviation standardisation organisation, EUROCAE is following different modernisation programmes carefully to ensure standards we develop provide the right technical support to deliver the necessary solutions and operational benefits. Our aim is a harmonised approach to airport solutions providing common, globally acceptable standards referenced in ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS).
In addition, from the EUROCAE perspective, based on the successful example of the airborne side of aviation, there is great potential for the airport domain to embrace a more flexible and agile standardisation structure to complement the performance-based regulatory framework.
EUROCAE has several airports as members and represented in our governing bodies as Council and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) members. This ensures that the voice of airports is heard and that stringent standardisation needs are properly addressed.
To further improve this support, we have partnered in a Memorandum of Understanding with ACI EUROPE, which provides access to a network of over 500 airports in Europe and beyond. EUROCAE sees it as a great opportunity to better serve the airport community in ensuring efficient, sustainable, safe and secure operations.
Christian Schleifer, Secretary General of EUROCAE
Airports represent an important node in the airspace network and having them as contributors to our airport work programme brings added value to the standards development process – for the benefit of the airport community in particular and aviation in general.
Recently, EUROCAE extended its airport-related working groups portfolio with three additional activities on Runway Weather Information Systems (WG-109), Airport Collaborative Decision Making
(WG-111) and Counter UAS (WG-115). These augment earlier work towards providing the necessary performance requirements and guidance on implementation at airports of Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems ASMGCS (WG-41) and Foreign Object Debris Detection FOD (WG-83).
The involvement of ACI EUROPE, by bringing the expertise of its members, will definitely boost the work done in developing internationally recognised aviation standards. It will also identify and address the future needs of this important domain. EUROCAE’s objective is to be a reliable partner in providing the necessary platform to develop standardisation solutions to enhance the use of new technologies at airports and:
- increase the efficiency of operations by generating a coherent situational awareness
- reduce costs by deploying interoperable systems and avoiding costly customisation
- address capacity issues by enhancing traffic predictability and means of exchanging information between the stakeholders
- increase operational flexibility by allowing movement of capacity to reflect demand
- improve the environmental footprint by avoiding ground movement congestion and reduction of pollution
- mitigate operational risks with the use of new technologies by addressing such areas as cybersecurity and non-cooperative UAS
EUROCAE has already participated in several ACI EUROPE activities and vice-versa and we can clearly see that extending this cooperation even further between the two organisations will provide tangible results for the benefit of the industry.
We know that from the standardisation point of view the airport domain has great potential. EUROCAE appreciates the opportunity of working with ACI EUROPE in enabling the integration of systems and services by embracing new and emerging technologies.
Christian Schleifer is Secretary General of EUROCAE.
About EUROCAE
EUROCAE is the European leader in the development of worldwide recognised industry standards for aviation. We develop standards industry needs that are built upon the state-of-the-art expertise of its members and address the global aviation challenges. These standards support the operational, development and regulatory processes, being fit for purpose to be adopted internationally. EUROCAE has over 300 members and 43 active Working Groups, grouping more than 2,700 industry experts and has grown by 100% in the last six years.
