5 May 2021
Interview with… Janusz Janiszewski
CEO di PANSA (Polish Air Navigation Services Agency)
[Cleared n°5 - anno XVIII - maggio 2021]
CEO di PANSA (Polish Air Navigation Services Agency)
[Cleared n°5 - anno XVIII - maggio 2021]
Covid-19 has hit hard the aviation system. What operational and technical challenges are you facing?
The air traffic was indeed hit by Covid-19 in the unprecedent way. The lack of traffic predictability makes it extremely difficult to plan the future resources. ANSPs need to be ready to effectively operate both in the rapidly increasing traffic as well as to keep their resources in the low traffic periods. The biggest challenge for PANSA nowadays I would see in a financial rather than operational or technical domain. Since the start of this crisis, almost all European ANSPs have been faced with a dramatic drop in revenues caused by the fall-off in traffic and deferral of charges by airlines in 2020 based upon decision of member states of the EUROCONTROL.
All ANSPs are in the process of making serious optimization of their costs and so is PANSA. There is however a limit to the potential of cost cutting for ANSPs, as many of their costs are fixed and most importantly that ANSPs are required to ensure services 24/7 regardless of traffic levels and they have to be ready to provide full airspace capacity when traffic recovers to normal - and this requires to maintain expertise, specialized staff and infrastructure. This represents less flexible elements which cannot be underestimated in a period of downturn.
I tend to see more opportunities than challenges and I believe that the cost containment measures we had to introduce will not jeopardize the company’s development. We have a unique chance related to implementation of the new, more digital solutions in the ATM sector. Traffic downturn is the great opportunity for paradigm shift in ATM digitalization and virtualization – that is the way, I believe, for many European ANSPs.
Technology, environmental initiatives, new delivery models, drones, how is PANSA addressing the new challenges and opportunities linked to innovation?
A large-scale digitalization across Europe seems to be just a right response to the current and future challenges in ATM and should be a common thread in stakeholders’ deployment endeavours. This is perfectly in line with the EU agenda, namely the idea of the Digital European Sky and EU Green Deal.
As modern technology in European ATM System has become essential, we should keep investing in creating new possibilities and emerging technologies in Europe. In PANSA we focus on developing and deploying some interesting solutions and projects like PansaUTM, iCAT or NaviHuB. Let me elaborate more on the first one.
PANSA partnered and launched the first operational in Europe and commercially ready PansaUTM system for drone flights coordination, flight plans management, airspace management and integration of UTM and ATM. In April 2020, a pilot project in Poland was carried out to transport samples for testing for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus using a cargo drone in Warsaw. I believe that such actions could support health sector as well as keep ANSPs operationally ready for “restarting” the air traffic over Europe and coming back to pre-COVID-19 air traffic levels in the future.
Another important activity is related to the ATM system modernisation. PANSA, as part of the iTEC Alliance, is working actively with its partners on development of the next generation ATM system, so called iTEC OneSky . PANSA will implement the iTEC OneSky system in the new Control Center in Poznan, thus giving a decisive boost to the creation of the future European Digital Sky on the Pan-European level. The system will be built on an architecture based on Virtualized Data Processing Centers, running on a Private Cloud, and will incorporate new digital and automation tools as they are validated. This technology enables the progress towards efficient and borderless air traffic management in Europe. The iTEC OneSky system is based on the calculation of trajectories in four dimensions, which allows it to follow the aircraft flight profile with great accuracy to manage it optimally. This improves punctuality and efficiency, reduces emissions and cuts operating costs.
What are PANSA key priorities for the future at national and international level?
At the national level, as PANSA we have three main streams and activities which are really important. The first is the development and implementation of the new, state of the art ATM System – an advanced system - iTEC OneSky, which I mentioned before.
Second important priority is the Airspace Modernization and aligning it with the new challenges. This process is continuous and before the Covid-19 crisis it was focused on the delivery of appropriate airspace capacity, environmental improvements as well as the new, mode optimized routes within the Free Route Airspace implemented in FIR Warsaw 24/7 since February 2019. PANSA also takes part, similarly to ENAV, in IATA activities related to airspace modernization called “National Airspace Strategy” project, which in Poland is called “Airspace Strategy for Poland”.
Third activity is the Polish drone flights’ coordination system. PansaUTM, also previously mentioned, is a foundation of the development of the U-Space concept which covers safe and effective integration of both manned and unmanned aircraft (UAV).
Other very important areas include preparation of our ANSP to the new concepts and roles which results from Airspace Architecture Study, SES 2+ and other key strategic documents. I would like to point out here especially the ATM Data Provision and digitalization in operational and business areas.
At the international level, we will continue the good cooperation with our partners, especially within the A6 Alliance and CANSO working for the strong position of the ANSPs and contributing to the sustainable and resilient Digital and Green European Sky .
Personally, I must highlight our very good cooperation with ENAV. I am glad that we have common key priorities at the international level.
SES II+ and other developments in Europe are redefining the role of ANSPs. You are the Chair for the A6 Alliance, what is your view on the changing role of ANSPs and how cooperation among ANSPs can help in achieving our objectives?
The members of the A6 Alliance remain committed to working together to modernize Europe’s airspace by developing and deploying the latest tools and technology that will support a Digital European Sky and a sustainable future for our industry.
By strong cooperation we will aim to preserve the A6 role in the SESAR R&D and Deployment activities, establish the SES Digital Backbone (SDB) as user-driven construct by and for operations and strengthen further A6 technological partnering.
A6 Members have been working hard to influence the evolution of SESII+ recast by elaboration of the positions on the key issues like Deployment and Infrastructure management or SESAR Standardization and so called V4-Gap. Similarly we need to continue our joint analysis on A6 opportunities concerning ATM Data Services (ADS).
I believe that a good cooperation not only among ANSPs but among all the other operational stakeholders (ANSPs, Airports, Airspace Users, Network Manager) is the key to ensure the success of any initiative to improve the current ATM system. At the same time an open and transparent dialogue with the decision makers, both at national and European level, can make the common vision and objectives of the operational stakeholders to be heard and hopefully achieved.