27 March 2020

ENAIRE, internationally recognised with the Sustainability Award at the 2020 Maverick Awards

The winning project consists of monitoring the points of an airway where air controllers offer more direct routes

ENAIRE, in collaboration with CRIDA, its innovation centre, was presented the International Sustainability Award at the 2020 Maverick Awards for an application that can be used to constantly monitor the direct routing authorised by controllers on air routes.

This recognition, announced in a press release from ATCA (Air Traffic Control Association) and CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation), is part of the World ATM Congress, which was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The award recognises all those initiatives and organisations that are working to reduce environmental impacts and make significant contributions to improve air traffic management. ENAIRE's commitment to sustainable mobility was recognised ahead of the more than 100 projects that were presented in this inaugural edition of the awards. The winning project monitors the points of an airway where ENAIRE air controllers offer pilots the possibility of flying more direct routes.

This new application can be used to identify the points where that direct routing is offered and to calculate the distance saved compared to the route contained in the original flight plan. This method can also be used to calculate the atmospheric emissions prevented for each flight.

In 2018, this tool allowed airlines to save 7 million nautical miles thanks to the direct routing authorised in Spanish airspace, thus preventing the emission of 243,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere and saving fuel for the airlines. By yielding information of which routes are typically subject to direct routing, this new monitoring method makes it easier to analyse and improve our network of air routes.

CRIDA, ENAIRE's innovation centre

CRIDA is a non-profit economic interest group, established by ENAIRE, the state-owned engineering company Ineco, and the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), and its mission is to improve the efficiency and performance of the air traffic management system. By developing R&D projects in close collaboration with ENAIRE, the senior partner, it helps to provide innovative solutions for safely developing quality air navigation services efficiently and sustainably.

ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the company of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda that manages air navigation in Spain. It renders aerodrome control services at 21 airports, including the busiest in terms of air traffic, plus en-route and approach control, from five control centres: Barcelona, Madrid, Gran Canaria, Palma and Seville. In addition, ENAIRE provides communications, navigation and surveillance services to 45 air control towers. In 2019, ENAIRE handled 2.1 million flights to and from four continents (Europe, America, Asia and Africa), transporting 300 million passengers. ENAIRE is the fourth most important European air navigation service provider, and, in a clear commitment to the Single Sky initiative, belongs to international partnerships such as SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, A6, iTEC, CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation) and ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization).

Edited by Alisè Vitri

Text source and visual: ENAIRE Press Office