ENAIRE shares its experience monitoring air traffic between Europe and South America

ENAIRE shared its air traffic monitoring experience at the 14th worldwide meeting of Regional Monitoring Agencies of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which was held in Gran Canaria.

ENAIRE, which is responsible for the agency SATMA, monitors the corridor between Europe and South America, which is based in the Canary Islands ENAIRE, which is responsible for the agency SATMA that monitors the corridor between Europe and South America (EUR/SAM), hosted this first gathering in Spain. ENAIRE’s Control Centre in Gran Canaria monitors an air space covering 1,370,000 square kilometres, most of it over the Atlantic, that is used by traffic travelling to and from South America. In 2018, ENAIRE handled 354,126 flights in the Canary Islands, 6.7% more than in the previous year.

Representatives from the agencies responsible for airspaces in North America and the Pacific (NAARMO/PARMO), Caribbean and South America (CARSAMMA), EUROCONTROL, North Atlantic (NAT RMA), the Europe-South America corridor (SATMA), Middle East (MIDRMA), Africa and India (AFI RMA), Russia-Mongolia (EURASIA RMA), China (CHINA RMA), Japan (JAPAN RMA), Australia and New Zealand (AAMA) gathered in Gran Canaria on 17, 18 and 19 June to exchange information on their regional monitoring projects.

These ICAO agencies conduct studies on safety, traffic and other aspects in the airspaces under their responsibility.  They also ensure that aircraft comply with the reduced vertical separation minima (RVSM), which allows them to fly more efficiently by increasing the capacity of the airspace and reducing the fuel used.

They will soon oversee the implementation of PBCS (performance-based communication and surveillance) technology in every region. This concept will be used to optimise the use of available airspace and to identify and mitigate safety risks.

About SATMA
In 1988, the ICAO created the South Atlantic SAT group to improve the air control services provided in that region. Later, in 2000, the group directed that the SATMA agency would be responsible for implementing new air navigation technologies.

ENAIRE, which heads SATMA through the Canary Islands Regional Office, is responsible for maintaining and approving the record for required navigation performance (RNP) and the separation between aircraft that travel on the EUR-SAM corridor connecting Europe and South America. It also coordinates with regional airspace monitoring agencies: Central North Atlantic (NAT CMA), Asia Pacific (APARMO), EUROCONTROL and the Middle East (MIDRMA).

SATMA also maintains and updates traffic statistics in the Europe-South America Corridor (EUR-SAM), monitoring its performance and any deviations. ENAIRE shares this relevant information with other ICAO members to determine how to apply it to air traffic management and how to implement it in communication, navigation and surveillance projects.

Daniel Palmes, operations tecnician of ENAIRE, and Antonio Arias, air traffic controller and SATMA coordinator.

About ENAIRE
ENAIRE is the company belonging to the Public Works Department that provides air navigation services in Spain. It renders aerodrome control services at 21 airports, including the busiest in terms of air traffic, plus en-route and approach control, from five control centres: Barcelona, Madrid, Gran Canaria, Palma and Seville. In addition, ENAIRE provides communications, navigation and surveillance services to 45 air control towers.

In 2018 ENAIRE handled 2.1 million flights to and from four continents (Europe, America, Asia and Africa), transporting 300 million passengers.

ENAIRE is the fourth most important European air navigation service provider, and, in a clear commitment to the Single Sky initiative, belongs to international partnerships such as SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, A6, iTEC, CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation) and ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization).

Representatives of the Regional Monitoring Agencies (RMA) in Gran Canaria.