DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
Meanwhile, much of Europe's airspace was simplified last week in first of three phases
Eurocontrol formally launched the world's largest aeronautical information service (AIS) at a ceremony in Madrid, Spain, on 24 November. It came as the first of three phases of an airspace structural simplification plan was implemented on 27 November.
Eurocontrol's AIS, known as the European Database for AIS (EAD), is already operational, holding all European aeronautical data, including notices to airmen (NOTAMS) and the latest details of aeronautical infrastructure status. The data is accessible by operators and all those who need it.
Eurocontrol had several aims in setting up EAD: to improve the quality, integrity and accessibility of data from the individual states that are still responsible for supplying it; standardisation; and elimination of the duplication of effort and the introduction of error which can occur when a variety of agencies handle the data on the way to the end user. Most of western Europe's states plus Turkey are already signed up to provide their aeronautical data via the EAD this year, and the remainder will do so by 2006.
Group EAD is incorporated in Madrid and operated by Spanish air traffic management (ATM) provider AENA, German ATM provider DFS and data management company Frequentis.
A navigation seminar called by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, the Royal Institute of Navigation and the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on 20 November stressed how crucial reliable basic navigational data is, starting with the accuracy of the surveys that determine the geographical co-ordinates of waypoints, airfields or obstacles. All navigation depends on prime data integrity - including charts and navigation databases in flight management systems. As modern ATM demands more accurate navigation with approaching requirements like precision area navigation (P-RNAV), sleeping errors may show themselves, according to Rowland Rawlings of Eurocontrol's airspace management and navigation unit. EAD hopes to add data integrity by reducing the chance that errors will be introduced in the data collection and distribution process.
Meanwhile, from 27 November, much of Eurocontrol's airspace has been simplified. In different countries airspace sectors can be classified anything from class A to class G defining who may use it for what, but now 28 of the 41 European Civil Aviation Conference states have declared all their airspace above flight level 195 to be class C, and all but three of them will do the same during 2004. Class C accepts instrument flight rules (IFR) traffic and provides full separation from all traffic, but visual flight rules traffic gets an advisory service only.
Source: Flight International
