Single European Sky ATM Research

SESAR or Single European Sky ATM Research is the name given to the project which is set to completely overhaul the European airspace.

The SESAR project is composed of three phases:
* a Definition phase (2004-2008) will deliver an ATM master plan defining the content, the development and deployment plans of the next generation of ATM systems. This definition phase is led by Eurocontrol, and co-funded by the European Commission under the Trans-European Transport Networks programme and executed by a large consortium of all air transport stakeholders.
* a Development phase (2008-2013) will produce the required new generation of technological systems and components as defined in the definition phase
* a Deployment phase (2014-2020) will be a large scale production and implementation of the new air traffic management infrastructure, composed of fully harmonised and interoperable components which guarantee high performance air transport activities in Europe.

SESAR’s target concept relies on a number of new key features:
* the network operation plan, a dynamic rolling plan for continuous operations that ensures a common view of the network situation;
* full integration of airport operations as part of ATM and the planning process;
* trajectory management, reducing the constraints of airspace organisation to a minimum;
* new aircraft separation modes, allowing increased safety, capacity and effi ciency;
* system-wide information management, securely connecting all the ATM stakeholders which will share the same data;
* humans as the central decision-makers: controllers and pilots will be assisted by new automated functions to ease their workload and handle complex decision-making processes.

The SESAR project has a parallel in the NextGen project in USA.

History

Contrary to the United States, Europe does not have a single sky, one in which air navigation is managed at the European level. Furthermore, European airspace is among the busiest in the world with over 33,000 flights on busy days and airport density in Europe is very high. This makes air traffic control even more complex.The EU Single European Sky initiative attempts to overcome this fragmentation and capacity crunch by structuring airspace and air navigation services at a pan-European level.To prepare for future capacity, etc. the SESAR programme was initiated in 2004 (as a continuation of the Eurocontrol project SESAME).

Dates

* Nov 2000 - establishment of the SES regulation.
*

References

* [http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/traffic_management/ses/doc/history/hlgreport_en.pdf] - Single European Sky (SES)
* [https://www.atmmasterplan.eu/http://prisme-oas.atmmasterplan.eu/atmmasterplan/faces/index.jspx] - The European ATM Master plan

News Articles

* [http://www.sesarju.eu/gallery/content/public/doc/080910SESARNEXTGENJointPRForumFinal.pdf] - SESAR Joint Undertaking Top Management speaking at the Forum on Integration & Harmonization of NextGen and SESAR in Montreal

Fact Sheets

* [http://www.sesarju.eu/public/subsite_homepage/homepage.html] - SESAR Joint Undertaking