On 7 February 2012, Swiss Airlines operated the first commercial flight equipped with a certified traffic situational awareness system, providing the pilots with real-time surveillance information on surrounding traffic. A première in Europe.

A breakthrough point has been reached in civil aviation with the operational deployment of surveillance capability in the cockpit, using ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance broadcast). On 7 February, a Swiss International Airlines A330-300, equipped with a certified Airborne Traffic Situational Awareness (ATSAW) system from Airbus and a Honeywell traffic computer, flew from Zurich Airport to Montreal.

This aircraft is taking part in EUROCONTROL’s CASCADE Programme’s ATSAW Pioneer Project initiative. 25 Airbus and Boeing aircraft belonging to British Airways, Delta Airlines, Swiss International Airlines, US Airways and Virgin Atlantic are participating. It also involves the UK and Icelandic air navigation service providers, NATS and ISAVIA as they provide ATC services for a large area of the North Atlantic.

Airborne Traffic Situational Awareness provides pilots with a real-time picture of the surrounding traffic during all phases of flight. Procedures using ATSAW will give the crew the ability to move to more efficient altitudes when operating outside ground surveillance coverage. ATSAW will also support visual separation on approach and provide traffic situational awareness on the airport surface. ATSAW is expected to bring concrete benefits in terms of safety and capacity, as well as significant fuel savings per airliner, along with corresponding reductions in CO₂ emissions.

“This is a major achievement, resulting from the close partnership between stakeholders and the Network Manager. It reinforces our ability to improve the European ATM Network’s performance in the short-, medium- and long-term,” observed Joe Sultana, Chief Operating Officer, Directorate Network Management.

ADS-B is a surveillance technique allowing aircraft to broadcast their identity, position and other information derived from on-board systems. This signal can be captured for surveillance purposes from the ground (ADS-B Out) or on-board other aircraft (ADS-B In). The latter enables airborne traffic situational awareness (ATSAW), spacing, separation and self-separation applications.

The CASCADE Programme being run by the Directorate Network Management, coordinates the deployment of initial ADS-B applications and Wide Area Multilateration (WAM) in Europe. CASCADE covers ground surveillance (i.e. ADS-B Out and WAM) as well as airborne surveillance applications (ATSAW), establishing the baseline for future airborne Surveillance applications. CASCADE is actively engaged in ensuring global interoperability: ADS-B and WAM are currently being deployed operationally both in Europe and worldwide.

The CASCADE Programme deliverables contribute to the achievement of the Network Management Implementing Rule (IR) performance targets, and provide means to our stakeholders to meet their surveillance improvement obligations under the Surveillance Performance Interoperability IR and the Aircraft Identification IR.

EUROCONTROL press release