Making effective use of technology in SESAR deployment

The 6th Florence Air Forum focussed on the upcoming Deployment Phase of the EU’s Research Program for Air Traffic Management SESAR. Some of the most relevant decision makers and leading experts came together to discuss the issue: among others Florian Guillermet, Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking, Frank Brenner, Director General of Eurocontrol, Maurizio Castelletti, Head of Unit Single European Sky of the European Commission, and Prof Kenneth Button, Aviation expert and advisor of FSR Transport for Air Transport and Aviation. Technology is the key element of a more unified European ATM System which is the cornerstone of the overarching goal of building the Single European Sky (SES). This is a crucial moment for all stakeholders of the SES: after years of research and massive investments by both tax payers and industry in the SESAR program the right governance of the deployment phase may now be decisive for the success of the technologies that have been developed. It is a delicate process because agreeing on how to deploy touches upon many interests in the SES system. This became apparent also in the discussions at the Air Forum, which could benefit from the presence of representatives of some of the most important stakeholders including Unions, Air Navigation Service Providers, Airlines, Regulators, ATM-Industry, EASA and the Military. The first part of the discussion focussed on the interests at stake in the SESAR Deployment phase, whereas the others looked at the governance model, focussing especially on the new Deployment Manager which will be nominated in 2014 by the European Commission to deal with managing the deployment process.