Eurocontrol has awarded the first contract in its TMA2010+ programme, aimed at improving the way in which aircraft arrivals and departures are managed at Europe’s increasingly crowded airports.
Under the €117,000 ($142,000) contract, the UK’s Qinetiq will work with Boeing Research & Technology Europe to review existing and planned aircraft management tools for air traffic controllers with the aim of developing new concepts for increasing airport capacity. TMA2010+ programme manager Martin Griffin says further, larger contracts are in the pipeline for a consortium that will include Qinetiq, Boeing, and the UK and Swedish service providers NATS and LFV.
The TMA2010+ programme brings in gate-to-gate routeing concepts, co-operative air traffic management and the Single European Sky and will be extended after 2010 with two further phases, the timing of which has yet to be decided.
Source: Flight International
