AIREON

Aireon LLC is a Company to design, finance, procure, deploy and operate a global, satellite-based aviation monitoring service utilizing ADS-B technology.

ENAV is member of AIREON with 12,5% of shares, other shareholders being NAVCANADA, Iridium Communications Inc., IAA (Irish Aviation Authority), and Naviair.

 Aireon will take benefit of the world’s furthest reaching network, being Aireon special ADS-B receiver payloads to be hosted on each of the Iridium Next 66 LEO operational satellites constellation.

The Iridium Next constellation is to be lunched from 2015 to 2017, once deployed this constellation in 2017, the Aireon design will deliver the first-ever space-based global aviation surveillance system.

 Thanks to Aireon service, the ADS-B message transmitted by the aircraft and including information on its position as accurate as calculated onboard could reach an ANSPs wherever the aircraft is flying on the globe. This new capability will extend the benefits of current radar-based surveillance systems (which are estimated to cover less than 10 percent of the world) to the entire planet with dramatic increase in the efficiency of routes over remote areas, oceans, deserts and poles.

 Aireon data are expected to have a strong positive impact on air operations both by allowing the most efficient surveillance in areas not covered by radar and by giving all the benefits by a further surveillance layer in areas already radar-covered . Furthermore with one global view of ADS-B equipped aircraft, Aireon will also be able to improve search and rescue operations all over the world providing a very precise GPS location knowledge and real-time access to tracking data to authorized entities (Aireon free of charge ALERT service).

 Air carriers will benefit of optimised flight paths, altitudes, airspeeds and jet stream use (without major changes to existing route structures) so reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and saving significant amount of fuel (e.g. conservative estimation of fuel savings for airlines overflying North Atlantic and Pacific is $6-8 billion from 2018-2030). Also, Aireon service requires no additional aircraft equipage costs and leverages the carrier’s investment in mandated ADS-B systems.

 Finally the global characteristics of Aireon will contribute to a worldwide harmonisation of ATM procedures and systems and will enhance safety and continuity of the highest level of surveillance services to the flights by eliminating surveillance service gaps over poorly monitored regions and giving an additional independent surveillance layer in areas with radar-coverage.

ANSPs will benefit for the first time of a truly global air traffic surveillance without significant new infrastructure investment, but maximising already made investments in terrestrial infrastructure by extending the benefits of ADS-B systems to area where terrestrial infrastructure are not possible (e.g. oceans) or have too high costs for installation protection and maintenance (e.g. mountainous or remote areas).

Aireon will enrich the ANSPs surveillance capability with an additional and diversified surveillance layer with respect to radar technology and terrestrial ADS-B; this will improve efficiency, safety, and robustness of surveillance services by allowing sensibly reduced separation minima in region with poor or no surveillance infrastructures and contributing to infrastructures optimisation and increasing of the continuity of services at the highest performance levels in areas already served by terrestrial surveillance systems. The possibility for an ANSP of performing surveillance in every airspace around the world will create new opportunities for future air traffic management optimisation and value-added services.