The COOPANS Alliance has won the Single European Sky Award 2016. This is in recognition of the work done by the international partnership to realise the goals of the Single European Sky. The award ceremony took place today at the annual World ATM Congress in Madrid.
The COOPANS Alliance develops a fully harmonised, world-class, safe and cost-effective ATM system and involves the ANSPs of Austria (Austro Control), Croatia (Croatia Control), Denmark (Naviair), Ireland (Irish Aviation Authority) and Sweden (LFV). The advanced ATM functionalities have benefited all partners leading to enhanced operational performance, enhanced safety, enhanced capability and increased capacity. The COOPANS Alliance is the leading example of industrial partnership in Europe.
Thomas Hoffmann, COOPANS Alliance Chairperson said: “We are delighted to have won the Single European Sky Award 2016. This is a fantastic recognition of the real cooperation by the COOPANS partners and the real results that we are achieving to realise the objectives of the Single European Sky”.
COOPANS was established in April 2006 between the IAA, LFV and Naviair, with Austro Control joining in 2010, followed by Croatia Control in 2011 and with Thales as the chosen industry supplier.
The COOPANS Alliance capitalises on joint, innovative and harmonised system development between the COOPANS Alliance ANSP members. COOPANS has adopted a common managerial approach, whereby the five ANSPs act as one organisation with the same COOPANS ATM System from the supplier, Thales, with a focus on common success. This approach delivers a saving of approximately 30% of (large) capital expenditure for each member, which ultimately delivers lower costs for our airspace customers. At the same time, COOPANS has also increased airspace capacity in the region of 30% for each ANSP member.
On three separate occasions in 2015, the same COOPANS software upgrade was successfully deployed across all seven Area Control Centres (ACCs), from the five ANSPs within an extremely short timescale. On each occasion this deployment was achieved with no negative impact on operations (no capacity restrictions / no delays).
COOPANS is planning for the future and to ensure compliance with the SES ATM Masterplan. Future system functionalities for COOPANS include:
- jHMI,
- Virtualised training,
- Harmonised AMAN,
- Cyber security,
- Free route extension,
- Time based separation,
- Flight object,
- Virtualised ops.
Furthermore, COOPANS is working closely with DSNA, the French Air Navigation Service Provider – another Thales user. COOPANS and DSNA are jointly committed to fulfilling SESAR objectives, and the CODACAS Programme (“Convergence Of Dsna And Coopans Atm Systems”) is assessing the opportunity to commission a common build of our ATM System from 2025 onwards.
About the Single European Sky Awards
The European Commission has announced five winners of the first edition of the Single European Sky (SES) Awards in Madrid. The Single European Sky Awards aim at rewarding projects that have contributed the most to the achievement of the Union’s SES with the participation of manufacturers, air navigation service providers, airport operators, airspace users and all the other actors of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system worldwide.
The winners were selected among 22 applicants, which covered the whole spectrum of aviation actors, for a total of 65 private and public entities from 27 different countries. The SES awards provide the right recognition and visibility to projects that delivered concrete results on the SES goals in terms of performance, better and more efficient rules, and innovative solutions.
It is a prize that recognises the concerted efforts of many organisations over many years, towards a common European goal. The completion of the SES is one of the priorities highlighted by the new Aviation Strategy for Europe, and will contribute to several Commission priorities: jobs and growth, internal market, energy union, and global competitiveness.
COOPANS – Effective harmonisation of ATM systems across Europe
