EUROCONTROL and GCAA begin real-time flight data exchange

On the basis of the cooperation agreement between the General Civil Aviation Authority of the UAE (GCAA) and EUROCONTROL in October 2015, real time flight data exchange has been successfully implemented on 6 June 2016 between both organisations.

“Real time updates of departure times and other trajectory information is now being exchanged between the operational systems of EUROCONTROL Network Manager and the UAE main air traffic control centre on the major traffic flows between Europe and the UAE. This is a significant contributor to realise the Global Air Traffic Flow Management Concept, where the different parts of the world connect and exchange these very important data”, says Frank Brenner, Director General of EUROCONTROL.

Currently there are already about 400 flights a day between the two regions and an additional 150-200 aircraft as overflights. Traffic is currently growing at 3.6% a year.
“The full implementation of this cooperation agreement will bring substantial benefits to the predictability of these traffic flows as all ATM actors will have much more accurate information on these flights,” said Joe Sultana, Director Network Manager at EUROCONTROL. “ATM predictability is a major enabler of capacity and the 64 air traffic control centres in Europe and the European airports will directly benefit from the receipt of these updated trajectory information.”

This data exchange is the central part of the Collaborative Global ATFM concept that is being promoted by EUROCONTROL and fully supports the ICAO Global Air Navigation plan which requires global interoperability of information and the seamless management of major traffic flows across ATM regions.