ENAIRE signs an agreement with Inmarsat

ENAIRE, together with leading European air navigation operators DFS (Germany), ENAV (Italy), EUROCONTROL MUAC (North West Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) and NATS (UK), join Inmarsat's Iris Programme to develop Initial Operational Capability (IOC), thus setting a significant milestone in Iris's early deployment phase.

Inmarsat's Iris programme will boost modern air traffic control in Europe

The Iris programme is a partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and led by Inmarsat to enable secure, high bandwidth satellite data link communication across Europe. The aim is to enhance controller-pilot data link communication to increase the speed and accuracy of air traffic control across Europe's congested airspace. ANSPs will be able to rely on Iris' certified, efficient and sustainable data link to increase ATM efficiency, alleviate air traffic controller workload and improve flight safety.

Iris is also designed to allow initial "4D" trajectory management by pinpointing an aircraft in four dimensions: latitude, longitude, altitude and time, which is one of the main concepts defined in the Single European Sky's ATM Research (SESAR) modernisation programme.

This will enable accurate flight tracking and more efficient traffic management by allowing pilots and controllers to collaborate on flight paths and calculate the shortest routes available, navigate to optimum altitudes and use continuous climb and descent to reduce delays, thereby saving fuel and thus benefitting the environment.

The service and certification framework for the future Iris Service Provider will be defined in the IRIS IOC project. This will be carried out in a work package led by the ESSP (European Satellite Services Provider) with the collaboration of the ANSPs involved in the project (ENAIRE, ENAV and NATS).

About ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the company belonging to the Public Works Department that handles air navigation in Spain. It renders aerodrome control services at 21 airports, including those with the most traffic.

All aircraft crossing the airspace assigned to our country receive communications, navigation and surveillance services using ENAIRE's modern network of facilities, consisting of:

5 control centres, 2 terminal area control centres, 237 radio aids providing en-route airport guidance and approach support, 54 en-route, approach and surface surveillance systems, 90 communications centres (combining transmitter/receiver centres and control towers), 100 REDAN voice and data communication nodes for air navigation applications, 126 control tower posts, and 153 control centre posts.

In 2017, ENAIRE operated 1.99 million flights to and from four continents (Europe, America, Asia and Africa), transporting 284 million passengers.