Joined up thinking

This editorial by Airways Chief Executive Ed Sims appeared in the July 2016 issue of Air Traffic Management magazine.

Right now Asia Pacific is the most dynamic, challenging and innovative aviation region in the world.

That’s quite a bold statement when you compare the traffic levels and complexity of the likes of the Middle East, Europe and North America. But what I’m seeing, from my corner of the world, is growth of unprecedented levels and a swathe of predictions of inelastic demand ahead.

Economic forecasts continually chart the rise of the middle classes in India and China, airport construction is taking off and, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), about half of the world’s air travel – nearly three billion journeys – will touch Asia-Pacific within 20 years, up from around 30% now.

In our industry a couple of decades is just an asset life-cycle away. Record-low interest rates mean that now is the time to invest in our industry, build partnerships with non-traditional players and work together to maintain what has to be one of the safest and most efficient regions to fly in the world.

It’s clear that no-one will solve this challenge alone. I believe that collaboration and bilateral planning between governments, regulators, ANSPs and airlines is absolutely critical if we want to achieve long-term and sustainable growth for our region.

The creation of a Seamless Asian Sky – a globally harmonised and interoperable air navigation system – and how our industry needs to evolve to achieve it has been talked about for years. It was one of the key topics discussed at the recent CANSO Asia Pacific conference in Queenstown, hosted by Airways.

After endless discussions among Asia Pacific aviation leaders around the benefits of collaborating to create a more seamless air traffic management experience for airlines travelling through the region, progress has still been slow due to a number of operational, regulatory and political challenges.

But with the growth and momentum we’re experiencing, it’s now time to put our talks on collaboration into action – to overcome the challenges we face as individual states, and as a sector, and start actively working together to create a truly seamless and interoperable Asia Pacific airspace. According to IATA’s predictions, airspace inefficiencies could cost the worldwide economy some US$400 million and millions of jobs. Helping our neighbours is one of the keys to developing a more efficient and integrated air navigation system across the region.

And our customers are calling for it. Air New Zealand CEO Christopher Luxon recently called it a golden opportunity that we as an Asia Pacific aviation sector must embrace if we want to show true leadership and provide the associated significant benefits to our airline customers that come from an integrated collaborative approach.

Geography and nation states can inadvertently create siloes, when what will really take us forward are seamless pan-regional solutions.

This level of collaboration and investment requires commitment across the entire sector – ANSPs, airlines, CANSO, IATA, ICAO, regulators and governments. While sovereignty over airspace continues to bring significant regulatory and political challenges, we know there are modernisation, productivity and safety benefits to be gained through joint planning. At Airways, we’re focussed on developing powerful bilateral planning with other progressive air traffic management organisations.

Collaboration in action

Airways corporatised way back in 1987 and was a founding member of CANSO in 1996. Similarly our national carrier, Air New Zealand was an early Star Alliance carrier and have been enthusiastic members ever since. This leads me to believe that the next step for Asia Pacific ANSPs is to develop our own airline-style alliances with our most aligned air traffic management partners.

A good example is our signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to improve capabilities in air traffic management. Partners like CAAS share many characteristics with ourselves as a relatively small but strategically critical ANSP.

Our collaboration with CAAS is just one example of how Airways is working to develop closer ties with our counterparts around the world, and we’re pursuing further opportunities with other like-minded and progressive ANSPs.  It makes sense for ANSPs to work together in areas where we have common thinking, expertise and capabilities, as well as geographical alignment.

Airways’ strategic and operational involvement with CANSO and ICAO enables us to lift the standard of air traffic management, enhance collaboration across the Asia Pacific region to address common issues and risks, and shape discussions globally on ATM issues.

We contribute no fewer than 19 of our senior leaders to various ICAO and CANSO committees, and I feel honoured to be taking over the role of Chair of CANSO this month. I want to see this industry body continue to do as effective a job as IATA and ICAO in representing all of industry's issues, and I will be championing the need for closer ties and collaboration amongst our members during my term as Chair.

What’s already happening in Asia Pacific?

Another strong example of collaboration in action is the work of the Informal South Pacific Air Traffic Services Co-ordinating Group (ISPACG). ISPACG was established by multilateral agreement between Australia, Fiji, Tahiti, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Chile and the United States.

The group was created to implement and deliver harmonised improvements for aviation across the South Pacific region – a role model of what can be achieved when industry partners work across all levels to achieve a common goal.

As well as ANSPs and regulators, ISPACG includes other industry partners like IATA, airlines and manufacturers including Boeing and Airbus.

Over the next few years, ISPACG is focusing on the introduction of space based ADS-B, system-wide information sharing and further reductions in oceanic separation. 

ASPIRE, the Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions, is a second Asia Pacific partnership initiative giving us further opportunities to help shape conversations on how we can deliver airspace enhancements that contribute to industry sustainability and growth.  Tim Boyle, our Head of Auckland Operations, plays a key role in this initiative – he recently took over as Chair of ASPIRE, further enhancing Airways’ role in minimising the environmental impacts of aviation.

Through ASPIRE, Airways works with airlines and other ANSPs such as CAAS and AirServices Australia to develop operational procedures and standards for flights which limit fuel burn and carbon emissions.

And a third Asia Pacific collaboration to note is our alliance with two Vietnamese aviation authorities, the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) and the Vietnam Aviation Academy, to provide air traffic control training for Vietnam-based students.  Earlier this month 11 VATM students graduated from their studies with Airways in New Zealand, after completing Aviation English and basic air traffic control training. A further seven more students are continuing their studies at our Christchurch training campus and are due to graduate in mid-August.

No country left behind

ICAO’s efforts to enable less developed ANSPs to implement its standards and best practices generates much debate. It is of course a worthy goal to help ensure that ICAO standards and best practices are implemented in harmony across the globe, so that all states have access to the significant socio-economic benefits of safe and reliable air transport.

However, if we take IATA’s predictions regarding the cost of our industry’s inefficiencies seriously, then we must stop anticipating complexity and start implementing the things we’ll do to get ahead. Asia Pacific will not come close to delivering on those growth forecasts if we can only reform at the speed of our slowest neighbours.

Evolving to keep pace with rapid growth

Managing the rapid increase in air traffic is a huge challenge for the entire Asia Pacific aviation sector, with potential impacts on safety, efficiency, environmental sustainability and the wider economy.

At Airways we’re transforming our business to set us up for the future – a future of new entrants, airspace liberalisation and increased competition.

We will maximise our use of developing technologies to aid our controllers in handling more traffic in more complex scenarios, and provide the platform for the transformation of our current concept of operations into a more resilient and capable operation. With this technology evolving faster than ever, our future operational vision ensures we have a fit-for-purpose and agile system.  

The next five years in particular will be critical to ensuring the future sustainability of air traffic in Asia Pacific. Airways is committed to both CANSO’s Vision 2020, about creating better regulation and enhancing technology investments, and our local implementation of ICAO’s Airspace Block Upgrade through New Zealand’s New Southern Sky national airspace and air navigation plan. The concept of a Seamless Asian Sky is central to Vision 2020 and ICAO’s long-term strategy.

During this period of unprecedented growth, air traffic management must ensure that the supply of essential services at least matches current levels of demand. That is the only way to ensure Asia Pacific retains its status as one of the safest and most efficient regions in world.  Imagine what we will achieve when all of the region’s air traffic management organisations worked together to remove the barriers to achieve this aim.