Recently in Air traffic management Category

Assuming all goes well, Air New Zealand and the US FAA will today complete an interesting demonstration of optimised ATM and flight-operational techniques on a flight from Auckland to Los Angeles. The FAA is making a big deal of it - administrator Bobby Sturgell is expected to turn up personally to watch the arrival.

Seems that at long last ATM is getting the prominence it needs as an environmental tool. ANZ press release below. Couple of newspaper stories here and here.

Rather out of the blue, IATA, CANSO and Eurocontrol have come out with a heavyweight document that seriously sets about realising environmental gains by optimised air traffic management. It's a "five-point plan" that essentially lays out the things that will definitely have to be done in order to get the benefits that are generally accepted to be achievable.

We can only hope it's followed up with action. ATM - in both the US and Europe in fact - is the one bright hope for emissions reduction in the forseeable future.

Regular readers will know it's an article of faith for me that improved air traffic management is the only way that aviation is going to improve its environmental act to any meaningful extent in the near future. Part of that needs to be the widespread adoption of what's called required navigation performance (RNP) techniques. And it's starting to happen.

First on is IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani who makes it clear that he is not happy. Mainly with the European Union and its member governments, but also with governments in general.

Here he is at the centre of one of the day's panels - he didn't smile very much for the rest of the day either.

But he did have quite a bit to say.