Avinor Air Navigation Services in Norway signs first contract with Indra within the iTEC Alliance

Avinor Air Navigation Services have closed a framework agreement with Indra to modernize the country’s air traffic management system. The Agreement initiates with the signing of a contract to implement a training platform to enable air traffic controllers to familiarize themselves with the iTEC system.

The contract will also enable the development of the detailed requirements of the systems that will be implemented in the Avinor ANS control centers.

Anders Kirsebom, CEO of Avinor Air Navigation Services states: “This initial contract is an important first stage towards nationwide deployment of our new air traffic management system by mid 2022, enabling us to provide the best possible services to our customers, at the lowest possible price”

Single European Sky requirements

Rafael Gallego, Director General of Indra states: “iTEC is a new and very advanced air traffic control system designed to meet the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM R&D) requirements of the European Commission and we are very satisfied that Avinor, as member of the iTEC Alliance, had decided to use iTEC technology as the basis for its operational systems”.

The development of the System is the result of a close collaboration, started in 2007, among the Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP) of the United Kingdom (NATS), Germany (DFS) and Spain (ENAIRE), being Indra the technology partner.

In 2011, the Dutch ANSP LVNL joined the alliance, Avinor joined in 2016 and the Polish PANSA and Lithuanian Oro Navigacija joined in 2017. The iTEC Alliance has thus formed Europe's most solid and consolidated pillar for the deployment of systems complying with SESAR requirements.

Over the next few years the Alliance partners will deploy iTEC systems in their control centers, complying with the obligatory SESAR functionalities, and preparing them to the future interoperability requirements that will affect the entire continent. This first contract represents in this sense an important step forward towards achieving the objectives of the Single European Sky.

Within the iTEC Alliance Avinor will collaborate more closely with its UK counterpart NATS being both part of the same "System Group" which means that they will share development costs.

The iTEC implementation is of great importance for Avinor, which manages a very large airspace, and which will enable to make further progress in the large-scale implementation of the concept of direct routes.

Indra has been supplying systems for the Automation of Air Traffic Control to Avinor since the 1990s, both for control centers and for the Control Tower at Gardermoen Airport. Also, Indra's Norwegian subsidiary, Indra Navia, is the supplier of "Remote Control Towers" systems for Avinor, and is the world leader in ILS landing aids systems.