National Recovery and Resilience Plan: Minister Giovannini signed the decree approving the Mims-ENAV agreements for investment projects for innovation and digitization in air transport

The Italian Minister of Sustainable Infrastructures and Mobility, Enrico Giovannini, signed the approval decree of agreements with ENAV to implement investment projects included in the Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR – National Recovery and Resilience Plan) in the form of grants for 110 million euro assigned to ENAV and its three subsidiaries: 

• Techno Sky, which is responsible for managing and maintaining the entire range of hardware/software platforms and systems utilized to deliver air navigation support services;
• IDS AirNav, which develops state-of-the-art software solutions for aeronautical information management systems;
• D-Flight, which manages and develops the platform utilized to deliver services for unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as “drones”

 “With the signing of the agreements with the ENAV Group”, Minister Enrico Giovannini stated, “we implemented the most innovative projects of the PNRR in the strategic sector of air transport. A digitization process is strengthened which will allow optimal management of services with particular attention to environmental sustainability.”

“I am sure that the developed projects” ENAV CEO Paolo Simioni stated “will provide immediate benefits to the sector both in terms of capacity and quality of service, as well as employment and economic growth. We’ll continue our path for a digital and sustainable innovation of the Italian airspace. I would like to thank the Ministry for a constant and fruitful collaboration.”

These projects are included in section 3.2 (Intermodalità e Logistica Integrata –Intermodality and Integrated Logistics) of the PNRR and are grouped under two main chapters: Digital Innovation and Green Infrastructure, which are part of the six missions identified by the Italian Government.

ENAV Group will be in charge of digitising the airspace management system, taking into account environmental sustainability as well, by implementing projects with regards to:

• the development and connectivity of unmanned aerial vehicles management systems
• the digitisation of aeronautical information;
• the creation of cloud infrastructure and virtualisation of operational infrastructure;
• the definition of a new maintenance model;
• the safe sharing of information.

As for the timetable, the PNRR envisages two main milestones: December 2023 and March 2026, by which the agreed projects should be completed.