FAA Surface Awareness Initiative, a game changer in RWY Safety and Airport Surface Management!
It has never been a secret!
Air Traffic Controllers′ ability to predict & detect hazardous incidents on airport runways has been historically dependent on A-SMGCS (Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System) platform - ICAO Doc. 9830.
A-SMGCS platform, as defined by ICAO, contemplated two different type of surveillance sensors:
For decades, the high costs associated with SMR installation and maintenance have made A-SMGCS prohibitive for the vast majority of the airports, worldwide - this has been especially true, at developing countries, subject to more critical budget limitations. ?
Further down the road, ICAO GANP (Global Air Navigation Plan) - ASBU SURF (Surface Operations), ratified the view that both airport safety (SURF-B0/3) and efficiency (SURF-B0/2) depend on A-SMGCS surveillance services. ?
As air traffic volume grew worldwide, what used to be a technology gap for RWY safety has also become a shortage, in the area of airport surface management, as most of the airports were led to a blind mode operation standard (no surveillance, at all).
And this whole scenario was based on the reasonable assumption that full RWY Safety could only be achieved, with the existence of a costly non-cooperative sensor
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So why is FAA′s SAI - Surface Awareness Initiative such a game changer?
It acknowledges Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule), by recognizing FAA′s need to provide a less costly/sufficiently efficient RWY Safety solution for 450 airports, where full A-SMGCS deployment is not economically viable.
That sounds pretty familiar to airports in Latin America and other developing regions, doesn′t it ?
FAA′s decision to accept a “cooperative” A-SMGCS, based upon MLAT/ADS-B only, by itself, would be great news, for the sake of RWY safety. Nevertheless, things get even better, if we take into account that cooperative surveillance sensors are the foundation for a wide number of airport surface management systems, available in the industry.
For all developing countries, what FAA′s SAI means is that one single and far less expensive surveillance network (MLAT/ADS-B) may be deployed to serve both ATC Safety and Airport Management purposes.
And that goes way beyond airport operator itself, as situation awareness is vital for any and all airport stakeholders.
Last but not least, it′s worth to mention FAA′s SAI is, by no means, an isolated initiative. Europe, is actively working on its SMAS (Surface Movement Awareness System) and ICAO has just announced the deployment of a “cooperative” A-SMGCS system in Ethiopia, in cooperation with the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority - https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/icao_we-are-thrilled-to-announce-the-successful-activity-7142676677649711104-686f/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
COLLABORATION is the current mantra for air transport stakeholders. It′s then time to put that in practice and get the most of the exciting scenario brought by FAA′s SAI.
Air navigation service providers, airport operators, airlines and ground handlers are challenged to COLLABORATE to take the most of the new technology scenario, with a view to target airport safe and efficient operation, as a common asset !
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Manager Drones at ANWB | Empowering airports at Usher AI
11 个月Kevin Woensdregt so for runways, cooperative sensors are accepted. But for VLL air space even far away in sparsely populated area, we would need the non-cooperative variant. Would be interesting to compare the risk.