Honeywell is warning that US air traffic management could be left in the wake of European technology and system development unless urgent investment in time and money takes place.
Dean Flatt, Honeywell aerospace electronic systems president and chief executive, said before the show that there needs to be an "international harmonisation between US and European future air traffic management plans to speed up modernisation and improve airspace capacity".
He went on to warn that unless the US effort is fully funded, it risks being unable to handle future growth.
"We're in a big world of hurt, and it could be a big constraint to growth if nothing is done," says Flatt. "It's really not on anyone's screen - and that's a real problem."
Flatt is urging European and US groups to work closer together.
"This is not a US versus Europe thing, this is about keeping air transport moving," he says. "Europe has had this on the agenda for a while and has been looking at the way it sets up its ATM. That is not happening in the US."
In an effort to raise awareness of the situation, Honeywell has started working with US groups including the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Business Aviation Association. Flatt says Honeywell is also "discussing it with Boeing".
"The group is also working with Congress. The [US] FAA [Federal Aviation Administ-ration] is worried about its operational funding, so we have to work with Congress," says Flatt.
A key goal is to try to increase globalisation of future ATM system development, says Honeywell, which believes the two current initiatives are too polarised. Europe's Sesame (Single European Sky ATM Masterplan Project) is in the early stages of a two-year definition phase, and is funded with $77 million, split equally between the European Commission and Eurocontrol.
The consortium is led by the Air Traffic Alliance, a team of Airbus, EADS and Thales, with US suppliers expected to get less than 1% of any future work.
Conversely, the US Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS) is headed by a complex federal government-run joint planning and development office (JPDO) comprising eight integrated product teams.
Honeywell and its supporters are proposing changes to the structure to increase industry involvement, give it more of a system-level focus and increase international participation. "We want the JPDO opened up to include more players with some reciprocity," says Flatt.
Integration
The aim therefore is to open up international collaboration between the two plans. "There has got to be more global integration," says Flatt. "There has got to be more European involvement in the USA, and more US involvement with them."
Flatt uses the Boeing market outlook to emphasis the urgency of the situation.
"Business is becoming more global, families are more dispersed and the world is becoming wealthier. Couple that with the increasing point to point services, evolution of the low cost carriers and the general decline in ticket prices you can see why demand is growing.
"Boeing estimates that although US passenger traffic growth will slow from its current 4.7% year on year to 3.9% that will still lead to traffic more than doubling over the next 20 years.
"If we look at the global figures the increase will be way over 5% and traffic numbers will treble over the same period," Flatt says. "The same is the case for cargo with global traffic trebling.
"If we look at the situation in the US today, ATM sectors along the key en-route traffic corridors are operating at or near capacity. With no changes, demand will be well beyond today's capacity."
Flatt argues that the ATM investment will allow aircraft to make more use of modern aircraft navigation systems enabling routing to be independent of ground-based radios supporting more time- and fuel-efficient direct flight plans.
"More efficient routing saves time and energy," Flatt says. A 3% saving doesn't sound like much but it equates to more than $600 million a year for US airlines".
Flatt believes that the European and US technology leaders should be working together to devise the best solutions and creating a single integrated ground air and space system.
"The Single European Sky adopted in 2004 has airspace organised by optimal routes rather than national boundaries. They [the Europeans] are determining worldwide standard rules. The structure has been established and they are moving forward.
"This may be funded by government but it is heavily influenced by European industry. There is little involvement by US business, " Flatt says.
"With traffic now back to pre 9/11 levels, the ATC system is again showing signs of strain. In the past four years we have done nothing to improve the situation for the growth.
"Traffic will continue to grow and the technology exists. It just needs the will and the money to significantly improve the ATM performance."
Source: Flight Daily News