Air Traffic Management in Europe has today to face two main challenges:

• One the one hand, the growing congestion European airspace due to traffic increase;
• One the other hand, the fragmentation of the European airspace between member states operating different systems, which is synonymous with non optimal airspace definition and different legislations and working methods;

These two major issues are tackled by the European Commission SES (Single European Sky) legislation aiming to modernise the European air transport system, with the following objectives;

• To improve and reinforce safety
• To restructure European airspace as a function of air traffic flow, rather than according to national borders
• To create additional capacity
• To increase the overall efficiency of the air traffic management system.

The SES initiative is, among others, supported by the SESAR (SES ATM Research) R&D programme, one of the SES pillar (the technology pillar).

ADV was involved in the definition phase of SESAR and now contributes the development phase, in particular by offering our experience in flow management and overall ATM system architecture. We’re also acquainted with the regulatory issues addressed by SES II and how it will reshape the current regulatory context.