Thales offers an upgraded product model for air traffic management with an upgrade of TopSky – ATC

• TopSky - ATC works together with key stakeholders, including air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and industry experts, to develop an upgraded system that ensures safe and seamless operations amidst growing air traffic flows.
• The development of the TopSky – ATC upgrade lies in an innovative governance structure that fosters collaboration, shared decision-making, and ownership among all parties involved.
• skeyes, the Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) in Belgium, shall join the initiative.

Thales, a global leader in advanced technologies, announces the launch of the TopSky – ATC upgrade, that further addresses the challenges of an unpredictable world of air traffic management (ATM). With the aim of creating a more efficient and collaborative approach, Thales will also bring together the product users in an alliance of users through the Alliance One, that ensures safe and seamless operations amidst growing air traffic flows.

The development of the TopSky – ATC upgrade release lies in a different governance structure that fosters collaboration, shared decision-making, and ownership among all parties involved. By aligning the priorities and needs of its customer ANSPs and their own customers, Thales’ approach facilitates the development of an upgraded product that evolves regularly to meet the ever-changing demands of the industry.

TopSky - ATC provides numerous benefits to ANSPs and air traffic controllers (ATCs). Through its flexible subscription service, TopSky - ATC allows customers to shape updates according to their specific needs and financial constraints, while enabling ANSPs to collaborate with Thales for both initial development and ongoing technological advancements, ensuring financial efficiency.

By collectively defining critical needs, the new release empowers ANSPs to concentrate efforts on enhancing interoperability and efficiency, thereby accommodating higher air traffic levels and subsequently increasing revenue. The system's common foundation facilitates efficient adaptation to emerging regulations, bolstering cyber security measures and streamlining individual system updates to ensure regulatory compliance and safety.

At the decision-making level, the roadmap for TopSky - ATC's development, along with future evolutions, is shaped facilitating open, transparent, unrestricted, and complimentary knowledge exchange. with stakeholders through Alliance One, a user alliance. Within Alliance One, ANSPs and Thales jointly discuss industry CONOPS and critical needs,. Technological innovations are then driven by Thales' Skylab Network, implemented globally to pool resources and foster collaboration between ANSPs and Thales.

Several clients have already expressed intention in joining this new governance model in 2024, the very first one is skeyes, Belgium’ ANSP.

“ In an ongoing evolution of our system, we have strategically chosen to embark on an upgrade of our TopSky – ATC system to adopt the next-generation ATM standard. skeyes also welcomes the implementation of Alliance One, which unites the essential requirements and provides shared solutions to all involved ANSPs, transforming TopSky into a more evolutionary and standardised system. This will improve cost efficiency and will facilitate the alignment with EU standards and civilian-military integration. By becoming a part of it, skeyes secures access to a consistently high-performing system for the foreseeable future.” Johan Decuyper, CEO, skeyes.

"Thales is committed to supporting ANSPs in designing an open, safe and secure solution that will enable them to cope more flexibly with predictable and unpredictable fluctuations in traffic flows. This enables all stakeholders to work together more proactively to build better skies together. And we're very proud to have already brought major ANSPs on board with us on this journey. So stay tuned to learn more." Christian Rivierre, VP Airspace Mobility Solutions, Thales.