ASAS – what does it mean operationally?

The Second Airborne Separation Assistance System Thematic Network (ASAS-TN) Workshop ‘ASAS what does it mean operationally?’ was held from the 6th to 8th October 2003, Malmö (Sweden). This workshop was focused on operational applications supporting the users’ needs identified during the first ASAS-TN workshop in Rome (April 2003).

The Malmö workshop was well attended by more than eighty participants from Europe, USA and Australia.

The presentation material from the workshop is available on:

http://www.eurocontrol.int/care/asas/tn-workshop2/asas_tn_workshop_2.htm

A set of recommendations were distilled from the presentations and debate at the workshop. The following have been extracted to give a flavour of the outcome of this workshop:

• Strong coordination between US and Europe (including terminology) is essential;
• ASAS applications should be considered as a set of components and integrated into the ATM system;
• Proceed to large-scale pre-operational trials of ASAS Package 1 as soon as possible, involving equipage of one or more airline fleets;
• Incentivisation schemes need to be identified to encourage all stakeholders (e.g. Airports, Airlines, GA, ATSPs) to equip. Specifically, methods to ensure that those investing in ASAS receive benefits must be established;
• Work to continue on Package 2 and 3 and beyond; and
• Continue work on ADS-B data link technology beyond what is currently foreseen for Package 1.

The full workshop report is available via the ASAS-TN Document Repository. Application details are available via the link:

http://www.eurocontrol.fr/projects/asas_tn/

A third workshop to be held in Toulouse is scheduled for the 19^th to 21^st April 2004. This will focus on the technical and functional aspects of ASAS. Further details will be available early in 2004.

ASAS-TN Additional Information

ASAS-TN is a two-year project sponsored by the European Commission (DG Research).

The ASAS-TN Objective is stated as:

“… to accelerate the implementation of ASAS applications in European Airspace, taking into account global applicability, in order to increase airspace capacity and safety”.

The work of the ASAS-TN is achieved by three routes:

• Three Workshops and a Seminar;
• Web-based documentation and discussion forums; and
• Development of an ASAS implementation and standardisation strategy.

The ASAS-TN has created a web-based repository of ASAS-related documentation.

The ASAS strategy work identifies and produces guidelines regarding the operational and technical standards affected by ASAS applications. It produces guidelines on further activities and ASAS-related projects that will be required for ASAS implementation.

The workshops inform the strategy development. This work proposes the fastest route for the introduction of the first ASAS applications.