AIREON becomes first-of-its-kind surveillance system certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency

Aireon was officially approved by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) as an Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) Organization to provide Air Traffic Management (ATM)/Air Navigation Service (ANS) surveillance services, to support the separation of aircraft. This authorizes Aireon as the first-ever certified provider of aircraft surveillance-as-a-service.

This designation represents the culmination of a three-year long collaboration between Aireon and EASA, the agency that determines and promotes civil aviation safety standards for the member States of the European Union (EU) and other associated States. EASA’s rigorous and holistic certification process ensured the performance of the Aireon data for use in critical safety-of-life Air Traffic Services (ATS) surveillance.

Aireon is committed to the safe delivery of space-based Automatic Dependent SurveillanceBroadcast (ADS-B) services to its customers Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems. By recognizing the performance of Aireon’s ADS-B service, this EASA certification is a major milestone to legitimize the world’s first set of global real-time air traffic data.

According to Manfred Dieroff, EASA’s ATM/ANS Standards, Implementation and Oversight Section Manager, “EASA performed a series of audits that addressed the compliance with the EU Regulation applicable to ATM/ANS Surveillance services, including among others management processes, system development and verification, software assurance, operational processes, service monitoring and technical support. With this certification, Aireon is able to provide its customers with an EASA accepted Service Definition Document and Safety Case accepted by EASA in the frame of the initial certification.”

“This is not only a validation of our processes, procedures and safety-case in the EU, but it also establishes a robust safety case that can be used outside of the EU and throughout the world,” said Vincent Capezzuto, Aireon’s CTO and Vice President of Engineering.

As the EU’s preeminent civil aviation regulatory authority, today’s certification ensures that Aireon will not undergo additional certifications for business purposes in Europe, providing a significant opportunity to expand safety, environmental and business benefits of Aireon’s spacebased ADS-B data.