ENAIRE holds a conference on general and sports aviation in Sabadell to disseminate aspects of airspace management

Today, ENAIRE held an informative seminar on topics of interest to airspace users with the various organisations of the general and sports aviation sector (Real Aeroclub de España – RACE, Asociación de Pilotos y Propietarios de Aeronaves – AOPA, Asociación Española de Pilotos de Aeronaves Ligeras – AEPAL, and Real Federación Aeronáutica Española – RFAE).

The event, which took place at the Barcelona-Sabadell Aeroclub, is the first of the five that will be held in the different air navigation regions in coming months, and was held in collaboration with the Aeroclub, the State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) and Aena. This event is part of the training and dissemination activities laid out in the Agreement signed in July 2023 between the different associations and ENAIRE to improve operational safety.

ENAIRE shares interesting facts about the 300,000 km² airspace that it manages from the ENAIRE Control Centre in Barcelona

Questions were discussed involving the airspace in the Eastern Region that is managed from ENAIRE's Air Control Centre in Barcelona, and that spans 300,000 square kilometres and includes Catalonia, Valencia, part of the regions of Murcia and Aragon, as well as a large patch of Spain's Mediterranean territorial waters. The Barcelona and Valencia terminal manoeuvring areas fall within its limits. The following airports are located within this region: Girona-Costa Brava, Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, Sabadell, Valencia, Alicante-Elche, Reus, Albacete and Murcia.

The aim was to share the vision of the different actors involved in the management, regulation and operation, and to share different aspects of interest for general and sport aviation, both today and in the future, favouring opportunities for collaboration and synergies. Operational safety issues, regulatory aspects of planned new manoeuvres, flight under visual rules from the point of view of air control and pilots, as well as possible improvements through the application of new technologies were all discussed.

About ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the air navigation service provider in Spain.

As a company of the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility, it provides en route control services for all flights and overflights from five control centres in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Gran Canaria and Palma, as well as approach services to every airport in the country.

In addition, 46 airports receive communication, navigation and surveillance services from ENAIRE, which also maintains their air traffic control systems, and 21 of them, including the country's busiest airports, rely on its aerodrome air traffic control services.

ENAIRE is Europe's fourth largest air traffic manager and participates in the A6 Alliance, a coalition of air navigation providers responsible for over 80% of European air traffic, and which is seeking to modernise the air traffic management system. It is also a member of other international alliances promoting the Single European sky, such as SESAR Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, iTEC, CANSO and ICAO.

ENAIRE, as the responsible agency identified by the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility to implement the U-Space system in Spain, will, through its digital platform, provide the Common Information Services (CIS), which are essential to facilitate U-space services to drones and Urban Air Mobility in cooperation with local air traffic services, so that all types of aircraft can fly safely in the same airspace.

ENAIRE has received the highest score in Europe on the aviation safety key performance indicator for four years in a row. It has also been awarded the EFQM 500 Seal for its safe, efficient, innovative and sustainable management of air navigation services.