Eleven European Airlines Preparing for ADS-B Trials

Eleven European airlines will ask the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to approve the airworthiness of their existing ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast) installations in preparation for their participation in Eurocontrol's CASCADE ADS-B and datalink program.

(CASCADE stands for cooperative air traffic services through surveillance and communications applications deployed in ECAC.  ECAC is the European Civil Aviation Conference group of countries.)

Aegean Airlines, Air Europa, Airbus Transport International, British Airways, Compagnie Corse Méditerranéènne, Cyprus Airways, Hapagfly, Lufthansa, Niki, Ryanair and SAS, together intend to certify their ADS-B installations on more than 200 aircraft.

EASA will accept the first airworthiness approval applications this summer and expects to issue the first certificates by the end of the year.  Eurocontrol anticipates the certification of this many aircraft will significantly assist Europe's ANSPs (air navigation service providers) to prepare their ADS-B ground systems for future operations.  The pan-European air traffic management organization says it will support the effort by monitoring signals transmitted by the aircraft involved, and preparing necessary certification material.

The trials will take place in non-radar terminal areas around secondary airports, and en-route as a supplement to radars, which are the areas where ADS-B will first be used operationally, Eurocontrol says.

ADS-B relies on aircraft broadcasting their identity, GNSS-position and velocity.  (GNSS is the ICAO term for global navigation satellite system, known as GPS in the U.S.)  ADS-B signals transmitted by the aircraft can be captured by receivers on the ground (ADS-B out) or in the aircraft (ADS-B in).  02-01-2007.

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