Atech presents its SWIM platform at the WATM Congress, a new tool for exchanging flight plans and other aeronautical information

Atech, an Embraer Group company, will participate in the World ATM Congress, which will take place from March 12 to 14 in Madrid (Spain). The company will be at booth 955, Hall 10. During the event, which is one of the most important industry meetings in the industry on advances in the area of air traffic management, Atech will highlight its SWIM platform (already deployed in Brazil as PCICEA - Airspace Current Information Sharing Platform). The PCICEA platform is based on the SWIM AQUILA product, which is part of the Makron Family of ATM solutions developed by ATECH.

The SWIM (System Wide Information Management) concept originates from the ICAO’s (International Civil Aviation Organization) global air navigation plan to harmonize the exchange of real time information on flight plans, meteorology and aeronautical information, based on an international standard for communication interfaces and protocols.

After a test phase that began in May 2018, the PCICEA platform became operational in November 2018 with Atech's AQUILA software, exchanging data between the Brazilian Air Space Control Department (DECEA), in Rio de Janeiro, and EUROCONTROL, in Brussels. The system publishes the status of flights departing from Brazil to Europe and accesses the status of flights departing from Europe to Brazil at EUROCONTROL.

As soon as an aircraft departs from any airport in Brazil to Europe, the data are transmitted in real time to EUROCONTROL, enabling the European air traffic management and control authorities to monitor the situation of this flight from the moment of its departure throughout its monitoring in Brazilian airspace. The same applies to flights departing from Europe to Brazil, whose flight data start being available in advance to the Air Navigation Management Center (CGNA) in Rio, since the departures in Europe.

Prior to this SWIM AQUILA solution used in Brazil, the European air traffic control authorities only received information from each aircraft upon its entry into the Brazilian airspace. With the new system, it is possible to organize landing and take-off sequences with greater anticipation, reducing impacts on the air network in case of changes in flight plans, such as delays or advances, ensuring predictability in the management of air navigation.

The SWIM AQUILA solution is a breakthrough for the regional integration among airspace management systems. It allows the sharing of gate-to-gate data among aeronautical authorities in different countries. With this new bilateral integration tool, air navigation flow management services increase the anticipation of timely measures to avoid or minimize delays. The SWIM AQUILA solution is an integrated module of the SKYFLOW (ATFM), the air traffic flow management system developed by Atech, with versions currently operating both in India and Brazil.

"With this new product, Atech offers a solution with the features previewed by SWIM, promoting real-time centralized data management, enabling the sharing of this information for air navigation service providers, airlines, government organizations and other entities related to general aviation," Edson Mallaco, president of Atech, says.