The CANSO Air Traffic Management Podcast

In this latest episode of the CANSO Air Traffic Management Podcast we talk to Javier Vanegas, Director Regional Affairs, CANSO, and Al Castillo, Senior ATFM Specialist at CGH Technologies about all things launching into space. They talk about how airspace is managed around space launches, including that iof the recent Artemis II mission, which saw humans travel further into space than ever before.

CANSO Europe's Enrico Parini talks to Deborah Seymour about his first six months as Director Europe Affairs. He discusses his motivations to lead a CANSO regional group of 36 ANSP members, their main operational and political issues, his experiences in the role so far and how he sees the future for the ATM industry in Europe.

Croatia has one of the busiest airspaces in Europe – air traffic at the moment is 44 per cent above 2019 levels, which is significantly above what was forecast during COVID. How does Croatia Control, the country's air navigation services provider, cope with all this activity during the peak summer season? CANSO Europe's Johnny Pring spoke with Dubravko Meco, the COO of Croatia Control, about the measures which his company is successfully applying in this regard to enable more capacity and fewer delays.

At the recent Airspace World in Lisbon, Portugal, we sat down with Kathryn Leahy, Chief Operations Officer of the UK's ANSP, NATS.  In a fascinating conversation Kathryn talks about the lessons she has learned from a long and varied operations career that spans the trinity of Civil Aviation - Airlines, Airports, and now Air Traffic Management.

Europe's skies are likely to be even busier in summer 2025 than last year. CANSO's Johnny Pring discusses with Steven Moore, Head of the ATM Network Operations Division at EUROCONTROL, what this growth in traffic means for the aviation industry and how operational partners can work together to optimise airspace capacity.

Johnny Pring talks to MEP Jan-Christoph Oetjen from the European Parliament's Transport Committee about the role of the Single European Sky ATM Research programme (SESAR) in transforming European airspace. SESAR has supported ATM's shift towards digitisation, automation and other new ways of working. Its projects benefit airspace capacity, ATM environmental performance, U-space and EU defence capabilities. Yet will the EU institutions agree to continue co-funding SESAR under the next EU budget?

The aviation industry stands at a critical turning point. With growing traffic volumes, increasingly diverse airspace users, and rising environmental expectations, the need for a new, integrated approach to airspace management has never been more urgent. In response, a broad coalition of aviation stakeholders came together in 2021 to form the Complete Air Traffic System (CATS) Global Council. The group has now launched the CATS CONOPS for Future Skies — a strategic vision and operational blueprint to guide the transformation of air traffic management (ATM) through to 2045. In this episode of The CANSO Air Traffic Management Podcast, CANSO's Director Programmes, Michelle Bishop, talks about the history of the CATS Global Council, and its aims for the new CONOPS.

A new book exploring the legal complexities of air traffic navigation regulation has been written by Francis Schubert, CANSO's legal counsel, Former Chief Corporate Officer, skyguide, and Adjunct Professor, Institute for Air and Space Law, McGill University, Canada. The book – The Law of Air Navigation Services – builds upon Francis' 30 years of practical experience and legal research to provide a comprehensive description and explanation of the regulatory framework applied to Air Navigation Services (ANS). In this episode of The CANSO Air Traffic Management Podcast, Francis talks about why he wrote the book, how he pulled all the information together, and how he hopes it will help ANSPs and others in the ATM industry manage the legal aspects of their work.

In this episode of The CANSO Air Traffic Management Podcast we talk to NAV CANADA's Bruno Ochin about the use of data to improve ATM safety. Bruno talks about his work at NAV CANADA and in CANSO's Safety Intelligence Workgroup, and we discuss the challenges of identifying and using the best data to drive safety improvements.

Johnny Pring talks to Alain Siebert, Chief of Technology and Strategy at the SESAR Joint Undertaking, and Friedrich Wilhelm Menge, the Chief Technology Officer from DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung about the potential of a modern, data-driven, and cloud-based Service-Oriented Architecture delivery model in Europe. This new service delivery model could transform ATM by decoupling air navigation services from infrastructure, moving data storage to the cloud and ensuring greater interoperability between all involved partners and their processes. How much progress have European ANSPs made towards this new vision and what are the remaining barriers to implementation? 

In this episode of The CANSO Air Traffic Management Podcast, CANSO's Rob Howell talks to Conor Mullan, Managing Director of Think Research, and CANSO's new Diversity, Equality and Inclusion champion. Conor talks about his hopes for promoting and improving DEI in the Air Traffic Management industry, the challenges such a programme faces, and his plans to manage and meet them.

To learn more about the EU's transformative SESAR project – Single European Sky ATM Research – CANSO Europe's Johnny Pring talks to Andreas Boschen, Executive Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking, and Mariagrazia La Piscopia, Executive Director of the SESAR Deployment Manager. As European traffic levels continue to grow, how can air navigation services providers modernise their infrastructure and digitalise their operations to enable the provision of greater capacity, and contribute to the decarbonisation of aviation? SESAR is a co-funded, collaborative EU initiative between ANSPs, ATM equipment manufacturers and other aviation partners which aims to support this technological shift. What has it achieved so far and what challenges does it now face?

CANSO's Media Manager, Angy Odysseos, speaks to Pierre Berolatti, Deputy Chief of Operations at the French air navigation service provider (DSNA), about managing air traffic during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this past summer. Pierre walks us through the preparation and execution of the games from an aviation perspective, highlighting the challenges of managing increased air traffic, coordinating with international stakeholders, and ensuring safety and efficiency in the skies. With large-scale events like the Olympics, air traffic management plays a crucial role in maintaining seamless operations while accommodating the surge in flights, VIP movements, and heightened security measures. The conversation also touches on the lessons learned and innovations introduced during this period, setting the stage for future improvements in air traffic management during global events.

CANSO Europe's Johnny Pring speaks to Urs Lauener, Chief Operating Officer of Swiss ANSP Skyguide, about Virtual Centres and their potential to transform air traffic management. By enabling ANSPs to offer their services independently of location, Virtual Centres should provide greater operational flexibility and ultimately more capacity for airspace users. Skyguide has been a forerunner in this change, and aims to merge the upper levels of its Geneva and Zürich control centres by 2028. Urs talks about his experience so far of implementing this bold concept.

As Europeans plan their summer holidays, European ANSPs are preparing for a busy travel season. Overall flight numbers are predicted to grow by 7 per cent compared to last summer and, in some countries, traffic will surpass pre-COVID levels. Yet there is also continued disruption to traffic flows due to the conflict in  Ukraine, military training exercises and more adverse weather. How can ANSPs provide sufficient capacity across the network in this complicated operating environment, while also meeting other expectations such as regarding environmental performance? Johnny Pring discusses these questions with Iacopo Prissinotti, the Director of the EUROCONTROL Network Manager, and Enrique Maurer, CEO of Spanish air navigation services provider ENAIRE.

In the second of our special episodes from Airspace World 2024, we look at the Future Skies: Tomorrow's Voices activities taking place at the show. Students and young professionals from the aviation industry spent the day at Airspace World in a series of sessions and discussions, culminating in a careers fair. We talked to two of them.

Airspace World 2024, the world's largest gathering of the air traffic management industry, has started in Geneva, Switzerland. Airspace World begins with the CANSO Executive Summit 2024, at which Dr. Mark Esposito, a renowned expert on AI, gave the opening keynote speech, titled The Great Remobilisation. Dr. Esposito explained the current challenges the world faces due to globalisation and rapidly advancing technology, and about the almost limitless possibilities those factors also present. You can listen to his speech here, and the subsequent question and answer session with Simon Hocquard, CANSO's Director General.

How can ANSPs assess and demonstrate their green credentials? CANSO's GreenATM programme was established for this very purpose. It provides an independent, industry endorsed, accreditation of an ANSP's efforts to improve its operational and organisational impact on climate and the environment. Two of the first CANSO members to be accredited are skeyes of Belgium and LVNL of the Netherlands. Johnny Pring spoke to their CEOs, Johan Decuyper (skeyes) and Michiel van Dorst (LVNL), to learn more about their GreenATM accreditation experience.

CANSO Europe's Johnny Pring talks to Eduardo Garcia, Senior Manager Future Skies, CANSO, about the airspace of tomorrow. How will we integrate drones and flying taxis alongside traditional air traffic? How should new and existing aviation players collaborate to their mutual advantage, and what regulation is required? And what will be the role of air navigation services providers in this exciting transition?  

The Ukraine war has had a profound impact on European aviation, pushing traffic to the west and south-west and creating new overflight routes. How have air navigation services providers coped with these new traffic flows, greater military airspace needs and increased volatility? The CANSO air traffic management podcast spoke to two senior ANSP managers from countries neighbouring the conflict to learn how they have addressed this challenge:  •             Maciej Rodak, Vice President for Air Navigation Services, PANSA (Poland) •             Adrian Florea, COO, ROMATSA (Romania)

Welcome to the CANSO Air Traffic Management Podcast.  In this pilot episode, CANSO Europe's Johnny Pring talks to Thierry Brégou, Head of International Affairs at Skyguide to answer the question: How should air traffic management adapt to climate change?  They look at how climate change is already impacting ATM through effects such as increased temperatures, unpredictable storms and forest fires. They then discuss how ANSPs should address these challenges to protect their infrastructure and ensure the continued resilience of their operations.