Patrick Ky has been working for 18 years in the field of Civil Aviation, and held different managerial positions in the private sector, the French Civil Aviation Authority, and Eurocontrol. Between 2001 and 2004, he was the ATM rapporteur for the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE). In 2004, he joined the European Commission to work on SESAR for which he was appointed Executive Director in 2007.

 
With the launching of more than 300 projects, the SESAR JU is entering the operational phase of the program. Could you provide an update of this very important and delicate phase?

After the kick-off of the work programme on 3 June 2009, the SESAR members put much energy in launching the technical work. Getting the machine of 16 work packages, 300 projects and up to 3,000 experts up and running was a major task. But the efforts are paying out. More than half of all projects have entered their execution phase. Some of them have even already completed their first deliverables or passed important milestones. The SESAR work programme is highly complex, not only due to its size but also because of the interdependencies of the projects. On average, each of the projects is connected to five others and has a duration of four years.
We are now preparing for the first organisations of validation exercises, in the course of 2010/11. This will be a major step since we will validate new technologies and operational procedures in an operational environment.

ENAV, together with the major European ANSPs, is strongly involved in the SESAR program. What is your view about ENAV's role in the SESAR JU?

SESAR is partnership in practice. Every member brings in its expertise, know-how and needs. This is our strength. Having the ANSPs, and ENAV, on board allows us to better shape the future air traffic management according to the needs of the main ATM personnel: the air traffic controllers. 
Therefore, as leader for work package 3 on the 'Validation Infrastructure Adaptation and Integration' ENAV is responsible for determining one of the pillars of SESAR: the validation of our new technologies and procedures in a real life environment. The work produced so far in this work package has been commended already various times. Project 3.1.1. for example developed a first approach to a validation roadmap. The report delivered maps the current validation situation and is an excellent starting point for further work in this area. I see ENAV as one of the most important partners in the programme. We rely heavily on you.

Just recently the European Commission and the FAA have signed an agreement concerning the cooperation between SESAR and  NEXT GEN; this is an important step also to achieve worldwide interoperability in ATM. What is your view with regard to the SESAR JU role in this framework of cooperation?

Air Traffic Management is global by nature and the ideal solution would be for SESAR to drive or at the very least meet the requirements for one global set of procedures and one set of on-board interoperable ATM equipment.
This EU-US Memorandum of cooperation in ATM research is a key development, especially the technical annex on SESAR/NextGen interoperability which defines five key areas of air traffic management interoperability cooperation. Europe and the US are both jointly working to harmonize their ATM standards, and this agreement provides a strong framework for global uptake of NEXTGEN/SESAR standards. This cooperation is good news for SESAR, and when it is finally approved and signed later this year, it will kick-start a whole new era of progress and evolution for SESAR.

During the last Board of Directors of the SESAR JU major issues have been discussed, such as governance and financing of the SESAR implementation phase. Could you provide your vision on these strategic themes?

Doing R&D for the sake of R&D is useless. Everything that we do in SESAR happens with a view to implementation. We invested a lot in order to structure our working relationship. I know that it may have been frustrating at some times - SESAR is a huge programme and we had to build up everything. But yet we were able to succeed in creating a real common approach and methodology for the development of new technologies and procedures.

I personally believe that it would be a pity not to take advantage of this investment for the future phase of SESAR. By the way, deployment of SESAR step 1 will start in 2013/14! There is I think a lot of value in the partnership we have built, and the deployment of SESAR will benefit from a similar approach. But there are other considerations to take into account, such as funding. As you know, access to public funds is not an easy matter these days.

Patrick Ky

Download Cleared - july August 2010 - complete number ( available only Italian version )

Go to the "Somenthing from..." archive