With an investment of 61 million dollars ENAV has purchased 12.5% of AIREON, the American company which supplies satellite surveillance services for aircraft based on ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) making use of the future Iridium constellation which will have a global coverage of the Earth's surface. ENAV and Aireon together: how do you see future developments? What will your common strategies be?

Aireon LLC is a joint venture between leading providers of air navigation services and the leader in low earth orbit satellite communications that share a vision for the future of air traffic management. We are lucky to have partners that not only have this vision, but also have the courage to make a significant commitment of capital and resources to make Aireon a reality. We see a very close working relationship with ENAV and our ANSP partners to deploy this transformational global surveillance capability, to demonstrate the value through improved safety and efficiency for the airlines and to support the global adoption of space-based ADS-B.

The first satellites of the new surveillance platform dedicated to air traffic management will be launched from 2015 and the service will be fully operational from 2018. Can we hope for a "safer" future which doesn't include episodes like "the Malaysian tragedy"?

There are still questions about what exactly happened in the MH370 situation, but overall it highlighted the challenges and gaps in currently deployed technologies. As you know, there is limited surveillance capabilities over oceans or in remote areas of the globe and the current system relies on the pilots checking in periodically, which makes for very imprecise location details. With AireonSM, an aircraft would automatically transmit near real-time, precise GPS-based location information to air traffic control authorities every 10-15 seconds. Even if a transponder were disabled, the information up to that point, including the transmission of the last location, would be immediately available. The real-time data provided by Aireon, combined with the global coverage of the Iridium satellite network, will make search and rescue operations more efficient, effective and hopefully, ultimately more successful.

ENAV has become a shareholder of AIREON in partnership with other service providers: NAV CANADA, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and the Danish ANSP, NAVAIR, and will have a key role in the development of services, for example towards service providers in the Mediterranean area and South East Asia. A revolution in air traffic control is expected: a big impact in terms of efficiency, safety improvements, economic savings....

This is all very true. We expect Aireon to have a huge impact. In terms of safety and surveillance, as noted previously, it will make a significant difference in the tracking of aircraft, especially when over oceans or other remote locations, such as Africa or the poles. Aireon, through its space-based ADS-B capability will provide surveillance to many remote regions for the first time, and enable near real-time tracking globally for much greater location accuracy. Furthermore, the system will be available to remote areas at a fraction of the cost of a terrestrial system, which will help enable developing countries adopt this needed technology.

We also expect Aireon to have a significant impact in terms of efficiency and cost savings. Through near real-time and more accurate location reporting, Aireon will impact flight routing and capacity. By reducing longitudinal separation, Aireon will also increase the opportunity for aircraft to obtain better flight levels. With aircraft safely able to reduce the lateral separation minimum, airlines will also be able to take advantage of better wind tracks. We project these changes will enable between $6-8 billion in fuel savings between 2017 and 2030. This fuel savings should also make a significant impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

An important theme for users of aeronautical services is the interoperability of technological platforms: How will ENAV and Aireon contribute in the development of situations which are no longer regional but global?
Significant investments are being made to upgrade the Air Traffic Management systems of the world. One of the foundational elements of the next generation air traffic control systems is ADS-B surveillance. Aireon will create a satellite-based platform that will enable the adoption of a global, common standard for surveillance, free from the constraints of terrestrial based sensors. This means even remote areas, like oceans and developing countries, will have access to a state of the art surveillance capability without the need to make a significant upfront capital investment.
This will allow ANSPs to implement coordinated use of regional and global airspace by maintaining a common surveillance capability, developing common procedures and standards that will allow for airlines to use airspace more efficiently and safely, anywhere in the world.
For example, ENAV will be able to work with its partners in the Mediterranean airspace block to create a coordinated air traffic management architecture and service throughout the region using a common, next generation surveillance platform.