Sir - Your leader "Air traffic mismanagement" (Flight International, 6-12 December, 1995) states: "The fear is that Russia will adopt a series of isolated, unco-ordinated, primarily vendor-driven ATM systems", which, in itself, is not unjustified. The conclusions of the analysis are wrong, however.
The International Air Transport Association's (IATA) mission is to serve and represent its member airlines. Its basic role in the air-traffic-control (ATC) area is to ensure that the systems and services provided to the airline are safe and efficient. The airlines use the system and are entitled to a voice, which is exactly IATA's function. This concept has been, and is being, applied in relation to the transfer from conventional systems to the new communications navigation surveillance/air-traffic management (CNS/ATM) world.
Through IATA, detailed transition plans have been developed. These are now being used with the International Civil Aviation Organisation and individual states around the world. IATA's Asia Pacific plan, developed in 1994 with Asian and US carriers and approved by IATA's Technical Committee, calls for initial use of CNS/ATM in the Russian Far East by January 1996.
Rosaeronavigatsia and the regional ATC Enterprises are moving in that direction, in a workable, step-by-step, programme, transferring experience from the South Pacific.
New routes will not only mean significant operational savings and the easing of congestion on existing North Pacific routes, but will also provide a source of new revenue for Russian ATC, to be used for further investment.
You portray IATA's work incorrectly as undermining more broadly based modernisation plans for the Russian Federation. IATA's user-driven implementation plans do not compete with any modernisation proposals.
The "European-funded, American-supported" proposal to which you refer deals only with the Russian Far East. It is not based on a national airspace plan for the whole Federation. IATA believes, therefore, that the proposal will not do the job. Russian authorities will decide, irrespective of internal or external pressures, and IATA has confidence in their judgement.
Your comments on IATA's expertise are not only uninformed, but are insulting to IATA technical professionals, who, in Montreal and various regions, have been involved in virtually all international work involving CNS/ATM. Their expertise in airspace/airways planning, procedures, communication and navigation systems has earned the respect of airlines and ATC authorities. They, together with other specialists, are well placed to advise the Russian authorities.
KAREL LEDEBOER
Senior director, technical
IATA, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
IATA's suggested piecemeal method of modernising Russian ATM is opposed or questioned by some key international institutions, and there is also a difference of opinion within IATA precisely because it could conflict with alternative proposals. Specifically, it may be incompatible with the proposal for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to finance a co-ordinated nationwide ATM modernisation. IATA's role, we believe, is to represent the needs of its members to air-traffic-service providers, not to act as an advisor on national infrastructural development. That is not meant as a criticism of IATA, and we regret that some in IATA might choose to find that view insulting.[Ed]
Source: Flight International
