Aireon has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Spanish air navigation service provider (ANSP) ENAIRE through which ENAIRE will begin investigating the safety, efficiency, and environmental benefits of deploying space-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) technology in its airspace, the company said.
Space-based ADS-B would for the first time offer ENAIRE 100%, real-time visibility for all of its airspace, including remote and oceanic regions.
Aireon is deploying a global, space-based ADS-B system capable of surveilling and tracking ADS-B equipped aircraft around the globe in real-time. The system will be used to provide ADS-B coverage that will span oceanic, polar and remote regions, where current surveillance systems are limited to line-of-site and densely populated areas. Aireon will harness the best of aviation surveillance advancements already underway and extend them globally in order to significantly improve efficiency, expand safety, reduce emissions and provide cost savings to aviation stakeholders.
In partnership with leading ANSPs from around the world, NAV CANADA, ENAV, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and Naviair, as well as Iridium Communications, Aireon is developing an operational, global, space-based air traffic surveillance system expected to be available by 2018.
ENAIRE provides air navigation and air traffic services. It manages 2 million flights every year from five area control centres and 22 control towers, and controls and airspace of more than 2 million square kilometers, including a continental area in the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands and Balearic archipelago, Ceuta and Melilla. In addition to flights whose origin and destination are Spanish airports, the company manages flights entering Europe from North America and Africa, and covers the main entry route for air traffic from South America. The traffic managed by ENAIRE transports more than 230 million people annually.
