ATM training

Maintaining standards
through training
Financing ATM training

The EUROCONTROL
Institute of Air
Navigation Services:
Focus on cooperation,
flexibility and innovation
Skyway is a quarterly publication of the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, EUROCONTROL
Volume 7, Number 36, Spring 2005
 3 Editorial
Independent Platform
4 Maintaining standards through training

Focus
6 An institute in change
9 Meeting regulatory training requirements
10 Finding the balance between efficiency and quality
14 Working in partnerships to meet the challenge of limited capacity
18 Online education
Skyway Magazine is a
EUROCONTROL publication.
Articles appearing in this magazine
do not necessarily reflect Stakeholder Forum
EUROCONTROL’s official policy.
21 ROMATSA: poised for future challenge
Publisher: Víctor M. Aguado
Managing Editor: Gerhard Stadler 24 ATM training in SENASA
Editor: Lucia Pasquini
lucia.pasquini@eurocontrol.int
Editorial Team: Christos Petrou, Jean-Jacques Sauvage
Linguistic Advisers: Language Service (DGS/LSEC)
Layout: Frédérique Fyon
Interview
Photography and pre-press
coordination: Christian Sampoux 26 Financing ATM training
Printing: EUROCONTROL Logistics and
Support Services, Bureau DGS/LOG

Articles, photographs and letters from Datelines

readers are welcome. Whilst every care
will be taken of material submitted for 28 ATC Maastricht 2005: a resounding success!
publication, the Managing Editor
regrets that he is unable to accept 30 Third EUROCONTROL innovative research workshop:
responsibility for any loss or damage. 9-10 December 2004, France
EUROCONTROL Website:
http://www.eurocontrol.int
Report
32 A tribute to Mikko Talvitie
32 Introduction of automatic controller-pilot data link communications
breaks new ground
© DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH

33 Good luck to Jean-Marc Garot on his new appointment

34 Visits and agreements

Karlsruhe
Operations
Room
 Dear Readers,
In this issue we turn the spotlight onto
a key sector of Air Traffic Management
(ATM): training and knowledge transfer.
Air traffic has doubled over the last 15
years, yet the number of ATM profession-
als has increased only marginally. New
technology and new operational concepts
have made for increases in productivity
and performance, but recurrent training and the adaptability of
controllers remain pivotal in the process.
With growing amounts of traffic and constant technological
advances putting greater pressure on systems and those who run
them, the effective transfer of knowledge and in-depth acquisition
of new skills remain paramount.
As aviation is inherently international, it is also of the highest
importance that harmonised standards are developed and imple-
mented across the continent. Freedom of movement and a greater
call for flexible manpower also dictate the need for common stan-
dards and licensing.
Keeping pace with developments in aviation and systems
makes for changing demands on training. The requirement for
expanded portfolios of courses grows in tandem, as does the need
for new partnerships and even greater cohesion.
New tools and tasks mean that new expertise is required - and
new expertise means more training. Know-how and professional
experience have to be constantly realigned so as to enable ATM
professionals to adapt as quickly as possible to the demands now
being made on them.
The pace of development is constantly accelerating. With the
launch of the ATM Master Plan, the future ATM system is about to
be outlined. Training will have to underpin the new advances: with-
out it, there can be no real progress.
It goes without saying that flexibility and innovation are as vital
to training as to any other area of Air Traffic Management.
It is clear that emerging issues - such as aviation’s impact on
the environment - and developments - such as the Single European
Sky - will lead to new training needs in the future. The wide dis-
semination of best practices in ATM, the effective transfer of knowl-
edge and the establishment of common requirements will underpin
the foundations and workings of a truly successful ATM system.
Víctor M. Aguado
Director General
Skyway 36 - Spring 2005
Chers lecteurs,
Le présent numéro met à l’honneur un secteur essentiel de la
gestion de la circulation aérienne (ATM) : la formation et le trans-
Editorial
fert de connaissances.
Si le trafic aérien a doublé au cours des 15 dernières années,
le nombre des professionnels de l’ATM n’a connu, lui, qu’une
légère augmentation. Les nouvelles technologies et les nouveaux
concepts opérationnels ont permis de réaliser des gains en
termes de productivité et de performance, néanmoins le recycla-
ge et l’adaptabilité des contrôleurs demeurent au cœur du
processus.
La croissance du trafic et les avancées technologiques cons-
tantes mettent à rude épreuve les systèmes et ceux qui les
gèrent. C’est pourquoi le transfert efficace de connaissances et
l’acquisition minutieuse de nouvelles compétences restent
essentiels.
L’aviation revêtant par nature une dimension internationale, il
est également primordial que des normes harmonisées soient
élaborées et appliquées à l’échelle du continent. La nécessité de
normes et licences communes est aussi dictée par la liberté de
mouvement et par une demande accrue de main d’œuvre
flexible.
Suivre de près les progrès de l'aéronautique et des systèmes
implique une évolution constante des besoins en formation. Les
demandes de diversification des cours vont de pair avec cette
évolution, tout comme la nécessité de nouveaux partenariats et
d’une cohésion toujours renforcée.
L’introduction de nouveaux outils et de nouvelles tâches
appelle de nouvelles compétences, dont l’acquisition passe par
de nouvelles formations. Le savoir-faire et les acquis des profes-
sionnels de l’ATM doivent faire l’objet d'une remise à niveau cons-
tante afin de permettre une adaptation aussi rapide que possible
aux nouvelles exigences du moment.
Le rythme des développements ne cesse de s’accélérer.
Le lancement du Plan-cadre de l’ATM va permettre d’esquisser le
système ATM de demain. La formation devra impérativement
sous-tendre les nouvelles avancées, sans quoi tout progrès sera
impossible.
Il va sans dire que la flexibilité et l’innovation revêtent autant
d’importance pour le secteur de la formation que pour tout autre
domaine de la gestion du trafic aérien.
Les nouveaux sujets à l’ordre du jour, comme les incidences
de l’aviation sur l’environnement, ou les développements en
cours, comme le Ciel unique européen, engendreront imman-
quablement de nouveaux besoins en formation. La dissémination
à grande échelle des meilleures pratiques dans le domaine ATM,
le transfert efficace des connaissances et la définition
d’exigences communes étayeront la mise sur pied et le fonction-
nement d’un système ATM véritablement efficace.
Víctor M. Aguado
Directeur général
3
Independent Platform
Maintaining standards
through training
Europe moved a step closer to harmonising its air traffic services in early February when the
European Parliament gave its support to a single Community licence for air traffic controllers.
Allowing more flexible use of manpower paves the way for more cross-border air traffic control
zones within the EU, and brings the region closer to its goal of creating a Single European Sky.
by Jenny Beechener,
Editor of Jane’s
Airport Review
A key element in this
process is the provision of
harmonised controller train-
ing across the Community.
EUROCONTROL's Institute of Air
Navigation Services (IANS) in
Luxembourg already provides common
course material for Member States, and
sees harmonised training as key to
achieving Europe's broader objectives.
The common licence is due to become
European law in mid-2005, and States
will have two years to transpose the leg-
islation into national law.
The institute provides a variety of Air
Traffic Management (ATM) training serv-
ices aimed at assisting Member States to
enhance safety and efficiency. This train-
ing is focussed on meeting the needs of
both air navigation service providers and
regulators. Member States take respon-
sibility for controller training in their own
countries, so the Institute tends to deliver
training for the trainers, and to dissemi-
nate concepts and projects. It works
hard to avoid any duplication with nation-
al training activities.
An example of this is the common core
content package which the Institute has
introduced for ab initio training.
Developed over the last five years, this
training programme is approved by
Member States and is being adopted
by all training schools. The EURO-
CONTROL Safety Regulatory
4
Requirement (ESARR) 5 covers training
and competency skills, and Member
States have to show their own regulator
that they are in compliance with the core
training programme. The common core
content ensures all controllers attain the
required standards. This in turn should
ensure that a controller trained in one
State has the appropriate skills and com-
petences to be employed throughout
Europe.
“It is neither efficient nor logical for the 34
Member States to be developing similar
training packages in an uncoordinated
manner”, says Lars Wedbäck, Director of
the Institute. “We are trying to act as a
point of coordination at the Institute, both
for traditional ATM training programmes
and especially e-learning. The latter are
quite expensive to develop.
Consequently, we are aiming to produce
various modules that are of interest and
respond to the common needs of the
Member States.”
“E-learning is rapidly becoming a key
learning tool and in a few years' time it
will be the major source of delivery,” pre-
dicts Wedbäck. To this end the Institute
has set up a learning server which is
available to Member States. It allows par-
ticipants (mainly controllers) to log-on
and select whatever course they choose.
E-learning provides an effective vehicle
for meeting new EC requirements under
ESARR 5, regarding refresher training.
The EUROCONTROL Human Resources
Team has tasked the Institute with the
development of a European master plan
for e-learning. This will take the form of a
series of modules that will cover a variety
of ATM-related subjects, including ATC
refresher training. Based on the
Institute's own experience of training
controllers for the Maastricht Upper Area
Control Centre, the ATC refresher training
modules are now being made available
for all Member States to use. Wedbäck
says about 80% of air traffic controllers’
refresher training needs are the same
throughout Europe, including for exam-
ple, emergency procedures, medium-
term conflict detection, separation mini-
ma and meteorological issues.
E-learning also offers an efficient means
of delivering training. Thousands of peo-
ple can participate through this medium
and avoid expensive travel costs. In
addition, e-learning can be combined
with traditional training methods to
increase flexibility and effectiveness. For
example, students can complete part of
a training course online before attending
the remainder of the course at the
Institute's premises in Luxembourg.
With only 15 staff instructors, e-learning
enables the Institute to meet its training
commitments across a broad spectrum
of courses in an efficient manner. The
Institute also delivers on-site training
courses in an attempt to limit partici-
pants’ costs. Out of a total of 191 ATM
courses delivered in 2004, 20 large-size
courses were conducted at on-site loca-
tions.
The strategy of sending one instructor to
a region rather than sending many stu-
dents to the Institute keeps customers’
travel and accommodation costs down

and enables them to meet their training
requirement efficiently. Efficiency is high
on Wedbäck's agenda. The Institute
trains close to 4,000 students a year; four
times as many as in 1998. During this
period the overall budget has decreased
by 25%. Wedbäck plans further
economies and has embarked on a plan
to further reduce administration and sup-
port costs. “The Institute is in the middle
of an important change. We have to
become more efficient – in other words
we must continue to work hard to deliver
more with less.”
The message is familiar in an industry
that has experienced a doubling of air
traffic since 1990. New technology and
operational concepts play a part in rais-
ing capacity, but development and main-
tenance of training and controller skills
remain a fundamental element of the
ATC equation. It takes three years to train
a controller, and as many as a quarter fail
to complete the training. Providing the
appropriate continuation training cours-
es within the right timeframe requires
careful planning and use of resources.
For many States, common training deliv-
ery is the way forward and computer-
based training modules make up a grow-
ing part of this, especially for ab-initio
training. The Nordic States of Sweden,
Denmark and Norway have combined
resources to develop a common training
centre, taking advantage of advanced
simulation equipment. Similarly, the eight
Member States of CEATS are looking at
common training resources. More initia-
tives of this kind are expected in the
future.
One way to improve performance and
make the best use of limited ATM train-
ing resources is through partnerships.
In November 2004, the Institute
entered into an agreement with IATA
that gives members of EUROCON-
TROL and IATA access to each others'
courses at a reduced price. As a
result, Member States can attend a
course on aviation law given by an
Skyway 36 - Spring 2005
Independent Platform
IATA instructor, not previously available In 2004, the EUROCONTROL Pro-
at the Institute. visional Council mandated the Institute
to develop a complete training pro-
Similarly, IATA members have the oppor- gramme for safety regulators, in accor-
tunity to attend courses given by IANS dance with the regulatory requirements
instructors in Luxembourg. “The main set out in ESARR 5, and following the
aim is to improve efficiency and quality recommendations of the Strategic
through partnerships,” says Wedbäck. Safety Action Plan. The Institute is cur-
“We set out common priorities and we rently developing 10 courses
avoid duplication of work.” The Institute designed to meet the five-year target of
has also entered into a partnership with the Action Plan. The European
Helios Group, whereby the UK company Commission expects to legislate on
provides specialist lecturers in return for many safety regulatory requirements in
using the Institute's training programmes 2006, and the Institute is on track to
outside Europe. deliver the new training modules within
this timeframe.
"This combination of safety regulation
training courses is unique,” explains
Wedbäck. “The initiative was driven by
the high-level action group for ATM
safety, and the Safety Regulation
Commission. Europe needs to have
professional, skilled safety regulators in
order to implement ESARRs. This task is
extremely important for future European
ATM. The fact that we have been given
this task is a recognition of the Institute’s
expertise in this area”. Wedbäck states
that the ability to provide a vari-
ety of relevant and timely post
Lars Wedbäck took over the graduate ATM training cours-
Directorship of the EUROCONTROL es, is a core strength of the
Institute.
Training Institute in 2002
What is clear is that the
The Institute is also increasingly involved Institute has become more integrated
with EUROCONTROL's new Member into European ATM (EATM) planning
States. Many central and eastern processes. By discussing training
European States need a great deal of needs and requirements at the early
training assistance and the Institute stages of network design, the develop-
reports high demand for courses from ment of new tools and procedures goes
these new members. “Access to the hand in hand with operations. “Before
Institute’s ATM courses is one of the ben- implementing new measures in Europe,
efits of EUROCONTROL membership,” we need to make sure that people
says Wedbäck. “They can take advan- understand how to apply them. Our
tage of our ATM courses from day one. courses are updated so that we are
They recognise we can give them first- always able to support the latest devel-
class training which subsequently opments.
enables them to improve their own train-
ing by spreading the information Our aim in doing this is to ensure that
throughout their own organisations. This the Institute remains at the forefront of
strategy is working very well.” developing and delivering ATM training
which adds value to the customer.” ■
5
Focus
An institute in change
EUROCONTROL’s Institute
of Air Navigation Services,
based in Luxembourg,
was founded in 1969
and is today recognised
as a centre for excellence
in training in Europe.
by Ian Middleton,
Head of Training
Division,
Rik Dermont,
Head of ATM Training,
and
Charly Sampson,
Head of ATC Training
1- Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom
6
The Institute has a multiple role in
that it delivers training to civil and
military service providers and State
authorities of Members States, as
well as providing training to EURO-
CONTROL staff. Initially serving the
six founding EUROCONTROL
Member States 1, the Institute's role
has changed substantially since it
was formed in the late 1960s, now
providing education and awareness
in ATM to staff of the current 34
Member States. Since its first course
in January 1970, the Institute has
trained more than 35,000 people and
has significantly expanded its portfo-
lio of courses.
The development of the Institute's
role over the years has been prompt-
ed by the changes in the air traffic
management environment charac-
terised by increasing complexity. The
challenge of the Institute today is to
meet the increasing demand for its
courses and products, and to pro-
vide more training on more complex
issues for more people with almost
no increase in resources.
To meet these challenges, the
Institute continuously reviews its
training techniques, concludes part-
nerships with Member States and
has recently embarked on an ambi-
tious e-learning programme.
The current ATM course
portfolio
The Institute provides a range of ATM
training courses and programmes for
EUROCONTROL Member States, air
navigation service providers, regula-
tory authorities and the Agency itself.
The target audiences for ATM train-
ing are operational and technical
staff as well as administrative and
management staff.

own specialised field of work, to gain
an understanding of other aspects of
ATM, and to see how it all fits together
and how ATM will evolve in the future.
To support Member States with the
implementation of the EUROCONTROL
Safety Regulatory Requirements
(ESARRs), there are also more spe-
cialised courses among the Institute’s
existing training modules.
Focus
Publication of the SSAP in 2003
placed new emphasis on safety issues
and the Institute has developed a pro-
gramme of safety management and
safety regulation training in line with
the Action Plan. While a few courses
are already being delivered, many are
currently being developed. They will
be gradually introduced into the
Institute’s training portfolio between
2005 and 2009.

The EUROCONTROL Safety

It is therefore not surprising that the
range and breadth of courses offered
by the ATM Training Unit is very
diverse. While most courses in the
Institute’s portfolio are aimed at specif-
ic target audiences, a few are especial-
ly designed to bring together people
from different backgrounds. The cours-
es can also be very different in nature:
some are designed to provide aware-
ness-training whilst others are devel-
oped to provide skill-based training.
The Institute attempts to complement
the efforts of the training centres in
Member States and actively manages
its training portfolio to protect the
integrity of this approach.
The current portfolio covers 10 different
domains ranging from airspace design
and management, and flow and infor-
mation management, to airport, human
resources, safety and CNS training
courses.
Improved support for
EUROCONTROL activities
Supporting EUROCONTROL activities
is part of the Institute’s mission. This
entails providing as a priority training
support for the European ATM
Programme (EATM) domains and serv-
ices, the Strategic Safety Action Plan
(SSAP), ESARR 5 and Flow
Management with a view to harmonis-
ing training standards across Europe.
Roughly 85% of the ATM training cours-
es delivered by the Institute directly
support EATM activities. The wide
range of the Agency’s activities in this
domain leads to a large variety of
courses in the ATM course portfolio.
Regulatory Requirement (ESARR) 5
provides general safety requirements
for ATM personnel who are responsi-
ble for safety-related tasks. The
Institute provides support to ESARR 5
through on-the-job training instruction
(OJTI) and competency assessment
training courses for air traffic con-
trollers.
The majority of the specialised Flow
Management training is directly pro-
vided by the Central Flow
Management Unit (CFMU). The
Institute collaborates with the CFMU to
make this training as effective as pos-
sible. It hosts the web-based training
packages on its Learning

Another important domain is the

“General ATM Organisation Domain”. In
this area, the course entitled “Towards
a Future European ATM System” is Roughly 85%
most popular. This course offers an of the ATM
training
introduction to the different aspects of courses
ATM for newcomers, but it also pro- delivered by
vides an overview of future ATM issues the Institute
directly
to people specialising in a particular
support
field of ATM. For many people, it is a EATM
unique opportunity to look beyond their activities


Skyway 36 - Spring 2005 7
 The Luxembourg Centre trains
controllers from around Europe

An institute
Focus

in change (cont’d)

Management System and provides its

course registration services for CFMU
training.

To ensure continued support to EURO-

CONTROL activities, the Institute con-
stantly updates and modifies the con-
tent of its courses. To achieve this, the
Institute works in
close cooperation
New Courses in 2005
with its stakeholders
and revisits training ■ Airport Airside Capacity
Efficiency Enhancement
requirements on a ATM training:
regular basis. It is
clear that the early
■ Aerodrome Resource the right
Management
identification of people on the
■ Collaborative Decision
emerging training right course
requirements allows Making
high-quality training to ■ Automated Support to ATS Each year, the
be delivered in a time- Institute receives
■ Aviation Law for Managers
ly manner. 4000 requests for
■ Airborne Collision Avoidance places on courses,
The Institute believes System but it can meet only
that the development 75% of this demand.
■ Detailed ESARR 2
of awareness and Current demand
Implementation Training
education in support outstrips supply in
of the Agency activi- most training do-
ties should be considered as an mains. It is particularly noticeable in the
Agency deliverable and be part of cases of safety and human resources
initial planning. The Institute offers courses. To offset this lack of capacity,
educational expertise and tools, a the Institute has to ensure that stake-
proven training methodology and holders with genuine training needs are
related quality standards during given priority.
development. To guarantee a suc-
cessful outcome, regular involvement As most of the Institute’s courses are
from Agency staff is needed. They aimed at specific audiences, the place
assist in the translation of the training allocation process has recently been
requirements into specific training reviewed. To this end, the Institute has
objectives for well-defined target invited Agency experts to be involved in
audiences. Recent examples of this the course place allocation procedure.
approach are the courses that the Additional enrolment information such
Institute has developed in the field of as job title and name have contributed
Aeronautical Information Manage- to the selection of the right people to
ment, the new courses developed attend a given course. This allows the
together with the EATM Airports Institute to focus on the learning needs
Programme and last but not least the of appropriate candidates. It has also
courses that are currently being made more extensive information about
developed in conjunction with the its courses available on its website.
Safety Regulation Unit. In each of Potential students can now choose a
these domains, the Institute has course, not only on the basis of its title,
cooperated with other parts of the but based on its objectives and the
Agency to develop and deliver high- course programmes available. It is
quality training to meet emerging expected that this will enable potential
requirements. course participants to choose the
course that best meets their needs. The
results of these changes have already
increased overall student satisfaction.
Taking into account the lack of capacity,
it is regrettable that there remain a rela-
tively high number of cancellations.
Most disappointing are last-minute can-
cellations. These result in a loss of train-
ing places which is clearly wasteful in
the context of the overall capacity short-
age. This issue can only be addressed
with the full support of the Institute’s
customers.
Future ATM training
development
The real challenge for the ATM training
offered by the Institute is to continue to
support the wide range of EURO-
CONTROL activities while at the same
time responding effectively to the
emerging training needs. This can only
be achieved through close cooperation
with the various stakeholders.
It is clear that issues such as the Single
European Sky, the environment and
security will lead to new training needs
in the near future. The Institute is
already busy assessing the respective
training requirements and how these will
influence the existing ATM training port-
folio.
Demand for the Institute’s courses
seems set to remain high. The Institute
intends to continue to maximise its out-
put and improve the quality of its cours-
es through cooperation, flexibility and
innovation. ■

8

Meeting regulatory
training requirements
Harmonised training
The EUROCONTROL Institute of Air
Navigation Service has a key role to
play in the development of harmonised
ATM training standards across Europe.
To this end, the Institute works
in close cooperation with
experts from air navigation
service providers and national
regulators.
This consultation process has
led over the years to the pro-
duction of training syllabuses, by Michel Pistre, States.
plans and materials. A syllabus Acting Head of
describes the performance Training
expected from the learner at Development and ments for engineering and
the end of the training. Harmonisation
Syllabuses identify the knowl-
edge, skills and attitudes required for
the provision of air traffic services in the mented by April 2005. They include the
ECAC area1 and as such they specify a
“common core” and thus are named
“Common Core Content Training”.
Training plans propose exemplary
methods to implement compliant train-
ing from best practices. The training
materials (e-learning, manuals, cases,
etc.) are available to stakeholders in
order to minimise their effort in training
development.
Common licensing
Since November 2003, the EURO-
CONTROL Safety and Regulatory
Requirements related to ATM services
personnel (ESARR5) have, inter alia,
made a minimum initial level of training
mandatory for air traffic controllers in the
EUROCONTROL States and recom-
mended for those in all ECAC States
which are not yet members of EURO-
CONTROL. In order to specify this min-
imum training requirement, ESARR5
referred to the ECAC guidelines for
common core content training.
Skyway 36 - Spring 2005
Hand in hand with this development, the
European Commission is currently pre-
senting a directive on a Community air
traffic controller licence to the European
Parliament and to the European Council
which refers to the common core con-
tent as a minimum required
level. A system of common
licensing has been under
development within the
ECAC States since 2000 and
will, for the first time, enable
personnel to have the mobili-
ty to work in all EU Member
ESARR 5 specifies require-
technical personnel under-
taking operational safety-
related tasks which are to be imple-
need for technical and engineering per-
sonnel to be properly trained and quali-
fied to perform the tasks to which they
are assigned. Here too, EURO-
CONTROL has produced guidelines
which describe syllabus and training
plans for the initial phases of training.
These guidelines will greatly facilitate a
common understanding and specifica-
tion of the competence requirements.
From content to process
The training deliverables describe sev-
eral phases of training for each catego-
ry of personnel, ranging from basic
training on arrival, through develop-
ment, all the way to continuation training
for the professional. The nature of the
guidelines changes according to the
training phase. For initial training (basic
and rating for air traffic controllers,
basic and qualification for engineering
and technical personnel), the training
experts have been able to accurately
specify the training objectives and their
Focus
contents. For the later phases of unit
training and system/equipment rating
training (engineering and technical per-
sonnel), it is more suitable to describe
the process than the multiple contents.
These two guidelines are currently
under production for release in 2005.
From syllabus to
implementation
The process behind the development of
EUROCONTROL training guidelines
draws on input from experts in the
Member States and takes account of
changes affecting the industry. The
guidelines are based on a modularity
principle and are structured to differen-
tiate the overall performance from the
detailed content.
As a result, they are an efficient tool for
specifying the level of training and com-
petence: their structure is fitted to
ensure traceability during upgrades
and to enable mapping between imple-
mented course and requirements. The
consensus principle on which they are
based provides a reasonable insurance
of their relevance to the broader
European area.
Since the implementation of common-
core content training in November
2003, no major difficulty has been
reported. However, a “consistency
review” of the training modules led to an
improvement of the document with the
issue of version 2 of the guidelines in
2005.
In today's regulated context of training,
the training guidelines facilitate fruitful
cooperation between regulators and
1- The
training providers, thereby contributing European
to the production of locally customised Civil Aviation
Conference
innovative training efficiently tailored for comprises
safe air traffic service provision. ■ 41 States
9
Focus

Finding the balance between

efficiency and quality
At the Institute, our purpose is to find the right balance between efficiency and quality.
That is why we have implemented a quality system to ensure
that efficiency goes hand in hand with quality.
by Bernard
Cassaignau,
Head of the tion. Increasing the output while main- the demand far exceeds capacity. It
Business and taining the same resources is a way of uses its excellent in-house conferencing
Administration achieving efficiency. Firstly, we use part- facilities to raise the number of partici-
Unit
nerships to achieve this. Partnerships pants from an average of 20 students to
enable Member States’ training estab- 40 students per course. Our student
Efficiency lishments with spare capacity to deliver satisfaction evaluation system has
In the last few years, the resources the Institute’s courses. This allows shown that the increase in the number
made available to the EUROCONTROL demand to be met with no decrease in of participants has had no adverse
Institute have remained stable. The the level of quality of the courses. effect on the quality of the product and
Institute employs approximately 80 peo- the satisfaction of the students.
ple and the contribution from Member To enhance efficiency, the Institute also
States has not increased above infla- runs conference-style courses where In order to concentrate on the core busi-
ness of training development and deliv-
3500 ery, we have reduced the number of
staff in the administration and support-
ing functions and reallocated posts to
3000 the core business wherever possible.
Staff leaving the Institute are not auto-
2500 matically replaced ‘like for like’. We take
this opportunity to establish what knowl-
edge gaps exist and ensure that we
2000
recruit people with the skills and com-
petencies required for the development
1500 and training of future courses. Only then
Number do we initiate the recruitment process.

1000 of course
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 participants These actions have enabled the
Institute to increase the number of stu-
25 1500 dents from roughly 1,500 in 1999 to
Workshops Participants more than 3,000 in 2004 with no
increase in the staff budget.
20

1000 In preparation for what could lie ahead,

15 the EUROCONTROL Institute moved to
a new building in 1999. This new facility
contains classrooms equipped with
10
500 state-of-the-art teaching aids, modern
support services and a modern, flexi-
5 Number of ble, fully equipped conference room.
workshops This has allowed the Institute to become
0 0 and heavily involved in the organisation of
2000 2001 2002 2003 participants ATM conferences and workshops.

10

Since 2000 the number of participants
attending workshops organised by the
Institute has increased from 500 to more
than 1,500 in 2004. In 2004, the Institute
was involved in the organisation of
workshops and conferences related to
the consultation processes for the
Single European Sky mandates.
As part of its strategy to meet training
demand, the Institute has invested in
the development of web-based dis-
tance-learning known as e-learning.
This method is well suited to the deliv-
ery of standard training for large audi-
ences. The largest efficiency gain
through the use of e-learning is
achieved by the customer. E-learning
for the customer means less travelling
and less time away from the office.
These obvious benefits must be offset
against the higher cost of the develop-
ment of, and investment in, a platform to
deliver the e-learning services and the
maintenance cost of such services.
Development of the e-learning services
started in around 1998 and subse-
quently became an operational system
in 2003. In 2003 more than 700 students
studied at least one e-learning module.
Skyway 36 - Spring 2005
Radar Skills Trainer –
using technology to
increase efficiency
In 2004 the number of students further Background
increased to more than 900. At the end
of 2004 more than 100 e-learning mod- In the late 1990s, the Institute identified a require-
ules were on-line. It is expected that ment for an intelligent PC-based skills trainer that
these figures will continue to grow in the could help in the basic training of radar con-
next few years. trollers. For many years a number of devices had
been available but none seemed to do more than
place a radar simulator, or a part of a radar simu-
Quality policy
lator, on a PC.
In line with the policy of the Agency, the
Institute adopted the European Skills training at the Institute was carried out in the
Foundation for Quality Management main simulator with one instructor per student, a
(EFQM) model. The EFQM Excellence fairly costly process. The use of unsupervised
Model was introduced as the frame- exercises is much more efficient but there is a
work for organisational self-assess- need for some form of measurement and assess-
ment. Without this, students may be left with a
false impression of their
EFQM 600
progress and risk develop-
results
ing bad habits.
500
A Skills Trainer (also referred
400
to as a Part-Task Trainer) was
required, which measured
300
and assessed student per-
200 formance as well as providing
facilities for an instructor to
100 review the exercise when
completed. This approach
0 requires one instructor per
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 group of students compared
with the traditional approach
of one instructor per student.
The Institute was unable to find a suitable commer-
cially available product so an in-house tool was
developed. The tool started in a simple way and
was gradually expanded to become an integral part
of the ab-initio course in 2002. The Skills Trainer has
now been made freely available to our stakeholders.
Part-Task Training: Definition
A method in which the operation to be learnt
is broken down into separate sections, each
of which is taught and practised separately
before bringing the parts together and prac-
tising in appropriate combinations until the


whole operation has been mastered.

11
 Finding the balance between efficiency and quality (cont’d)
Focus

ment. EFQM helps us to deliver prod-
ucts and improved services through the
effective use of leading-edge manage-
ment practices. Since 1996, EFQM has
triggered changes at the Institute in its
journey to quality.
EFQM has provided a framework
which has guided the Institute through
a large number of changes. We have
taken several measures to guarantee
that our efficiency policy is compatible
with the expectations and needs of our
customers. To obtain information about
customers’ needs and expectations,
we make great efforts to consult stake-
holders and to measure customer sat-
isfaction.
Stakeholder consultation
The Institute has a clearly defined
stakeholder consultation process. This
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
firstly consists of the regular meetings
of the Training Consultation Group
(TCG), which is the Member States’
consultative body for the Institute. The
aim of the TCG is to define the strategic
direction of the Institute. In addition, the
Institute conducts annual bilateral cus-
tomer visits. These visits provide us
with very useful but more informal feed-
back from our stakeholders.
The Institute has also established an
interface with EATM to ensure that it is
able to provide its various programmes,
domains and services with effective
training deliverables.
Finally, the Institute is currently estab-
lishing Service Level Agreements
(SLAs) with its partners and major cus-
tomers (such as the Central European
Air Traffic Services and Maastricht
Upper Area Control Centres). The aim
of these is to define in a transparent
manner the services to be provided
and the resources required to achieve
them. The SLAs also have the advan-
tage of providing a framework which
enables us to use our resources to
meet the stakeholders’ requirements in
an efficient and flexible manner.
These stakeholder consultation
processes have been instrumental in
the continuous review of the Institute's
role and functions, leading to a portfo-
lio of training products well aligned to
stakeholder needs.
Measurement of
customer satisfaction
The stakeholder consultation
processes facilitate the development
and alignment of the Institute’s prod-
ucts with the needs of the stakehold-
ers. The Institute continuously moni-
tors the quality of delivery of these
products to the end-users. As part of
its policies, it measures the satisfac-
tion of customers/students with each
training product. The first and best
developed example is the processing
of the course evaluation forms, filled
in by students at the end of each
course.

0.3
Course 1 Course 2 The evaluation forms are automatical-
0.2 ly processed and stored in the
0.1 Institute course evaluation database.
Measurement
0 This database contains the satisfac-
to r
of customer
rse atio
n ect to r
Cou ture ent eness ruc n ubj e ruc e tion results of over 8,000 students
uc u m t Instaratio c t or s wledg Inst g styl satisfaction
Str Doc mple pre
p
Inst
ru kno hin participating in more than 600 cours-
co t eac
es. It enables us to verify the satis-
90 faction of students with the quality of
each course including course con-
tent, the competence of the instructor
and the accuracy of the documenta-
85 tion. It provides course supervisors
with data concerning the satisfaction
levels for existing courses and allows
them to assess the quality of new and
80 updated courses. The system has
also been used to measure the valid-
Overall ity of teaching courses for large audi-
student ences. On average, overall student
75 satisfaction satisfaction has increased significant-
2001 2002 2003 2004

12

ly since the introduction of the meas-
urement system.
The Institute has introduced similar
systems for the measurement of satis-
faction with the e-learning products
and organisation of workshops.
These systems started delivering
results in 2004.
Other initiatives
The Institute does not only measure
‘satisfaction’. If students or customers
are dissatisfied, they also have an
opportunity to express themselves.
Each product (such as training notes)
contains a clear reference to the pro-
cedures relating to complaints and
the associated anonymous form on
the Institute website. In 2004, no
complaints were filed through the
complaints procedure.
Last but not least, instructors are sub-
ject to a formal annual competency
assessment procedure. The system
has been in place for two years. This
competency assessment procedure,
together with the student evaluation
at the end of each course, are impor-
tant tools to guarantee that each
instructor continues to meet the
demanding expectations of the stu-
dents.
Skyway 36 - Spring 2005


Achievements
Since 1996, the Institute has per-
formed an annual self-assessment
against the EFQM Excellence Model.
The results of each of these self-
assessments have been used as
inputs for new quality and efficiency
improvement projects. In 2001, the
EUROCONTROL Institute for Air
Navigation Services was recognised
for excellence by EFQM. Since then,
we have continued to improve our
policies, processes and results. We
believe that on our journey to excel-
lence we have found the right balance
between efficiency and quality. ■ ulator, reducing the one-to-one training require-
Part-Task
Trainer at IANS


The tool is being used by NATS at its ATC College
in the UK. NATS is currently pursuing a training
strategy where trainees have the ability to hone
the most basic of ATC skills on part-task trainers,
before bringing those skills together during full
simulation exercises. As a basic skills trainer for
radar, the Institute tool is allowing trainees to real-
ly own their training, practicing in their own time
and encouraging them to continuously improve.
Principles
The skills trainer works on the basis of objective
measurement. For any given exercise, a combina-
tion of pre-determined objectives and airspace
design provides a scenario designed to teach
specific skills. The skills that can be measured are:
■ maintaining an aircraft in a given piece of air-
space or on a specified route;
■ maintaining separation between all aircraft;
■ ensuring that aircraft achieve their exit point at
a specified level;
■ ensuring that aircraft receive the most expedi-
tious routing;
■ ensuring that aircraft receive the minimum
number of commands from the controller.
In practice, the student completes the exercise
and receives a debriefing from the programme on
the objectives measured. The Instructor then
reviews the exercise using the replay function
and debriefs the student on techniques and other
items that the tool currently does not assess.
Benefits
The benefits of the Radar Skills Trainer are manifold.
It has significantly reduced the time spent in the sim-
ments. It also provides flexibility as it enables stu-
dents to practice in their own time, and as a gener-
ic tool it has been made freely avail-
able to ATC training schools in
Member States.
The Radar Skills Trainer was intro-
duced at the Institute to meet the
requirement to provide practical
training in the early stages of the
ATC ab-initio training. For a typical
group of students, this reduces the
number of required instructors
from 8 to 3.
13
Focus

Working in partnerships
to meet the challenge of
limited capacity

Over the years, the EUROCONTROL Institute of Air

Navigation Services has significantly increased its
output thanks to a combination of new training methods
and efficiency gains. “
We are very much looking
forward to contributing,
through our partnership with
the Institute to meeting
by Rik Simoens, the training needs of the
limited by the number of instructors
Business Manager available and size of the building (i.e. European ATM community.
the number of available classrooms). With our long and wide
experience of training for
Despite continuous In addition to course delivery, the international clients, we
efforts, there remains Institute is heavily involved in the devel- believe we are well suited
a gap between the opment of new training programmes.
for this task.

number of requested
places on courses offered by the
Institute and the number of course
places actually available. As in so
many other domains in aviation, the
Institute is facing a capacity gap. The
introduction of additional courses is
”
These training programmes support
the implementation of the Strategic
Safety Action Plan, the EURO- Per-Inge Hoffman,
CONTROL Safety Regulatory Training Director Swedish ATS
Programme and the Cooperative Academy
Network Design activities of the
Agency. The development of new

14
 Focus
courses in these domains not only
requires significant resources but also
poses a challenge to knowledge man-
agement at the Institute. The question
arises whether the Institute can invest
in all ATM domains requiring significant
“ Airlines and air navigation service providers (ANSPs) are part-
ners in the same industry. Safe and efficient air traffic manage-
ment (ATM) is essential to the air transport industry. Cost effi-
ciency is also critical.
training (management or aviation law to
name just a few). Clearly the answer to
this question is ‘no’. The Institute can- Airlines reduced non-fuel unit costs by 2.5% in 2003 and a further
not, alone, cover the complete spec- 3.0% in 2004. IATA is working closely with our European partners
trum of ATM training requirements. to set and achieve the challenging ATM efficiency targets. These
are needed to bring ANSPs in line with airline efforts to meet cus-
Working together tomer expectations of reduced costs and improved service stan-
The Institute has a well documented dards.
policy that clearly states that it will not
compete with Member States or service The cooperative training agreement signed in September 2004
providers in the Member States. This with the EUROCONTROL Institute for Air Navigation Services
policy is confirmed on a yearly basis adds a new dimension to our relationship and makes good busi-
during the meetings of the Training
ness sense.
Consultation Group, the Member
States’ consultative body of the
Institute. This means that the Institute
EUROCONTROL and IATA will provide more and better training
will not normally include in its course services without increasing costs. Furthermore, collaboration in
portfolio courses that are available on training will promote our shared objective, to enhance ATM safe-
the commercial market. ty and efficiency.

The no-competition principle has

enabled the Institute to concentrate on
its core mission: supporting the EURO-
Giovanni Bisignani,
”
Director General & CEO, IATA
CONTROL Agency activities with train-
ing programmes.

The no-competition principle creates a

clear demarcation between the Institute
and the service providers in Member
States. However, this has not prevented
the development of partnerships
between the Institute and some
Member States. These partnerships
can help the Institute and States to
close the capacity gap and use the
available resources more efficiently.
Partnerships designed to
increase capacity further
The Institute started exploring part-
nerships in a systematic way three
years ago. This required a change in
mentality. Traditionally, training mate-
rial was viewed as an asset owned
by EUROCONTROL that needed to
be protected from commercial use.
Requests for EUROCONTROL train-
ing material outside the context of
EUROCONTROL courses would have
been viewed with suspicion.
However, it has increasingly become
clear that air navigation service
providers and States should have the
opportunity to capitalise on the
investments they have made in sup-
porting the development of the
Institute's training material.
Consequently, the Institute has
encouraged them to use this material
outside its traditional scope.
OJTI partnerships
The On-The-Job-Training Instructor
course is the ESARR 5 training stan-
dard for the issue of an OJTI licence
endorsement. The course has been
developed by EUROCONTROL and is
delivered at the Institute.
From the outset, the Institute’s aim has
been to use the course to train the
trainers. Owing to other ATM training
priorities, the Institute, together with
its stakeholders, decided to reduce its
delivery capacity on this course. To
bridge this gap, the Institute has
worked together with its stakeholders


Skyway 36 - Spring 2005 15

Cooperation
in ATM training
“
of
Investment in the pro-
curement and operation
appropriate infra-
structure and qualified human resources for
the training of ATM operational staff as well as
the development of training courses is expen-
sive. Therefore any cooperation in ATM train-
ing can help to reduce both effort and cost for
organisations involved in human resources
development. Economic benefits can be
achieved by sharing of resources, joint devel-
opment projects and standardisation of quali-
fications and training processes. The strategy
to harmonise and standardise training, as
implemented for the EATM project activities,
and the idea of shared resources for training
in Europe is fully supported by the DFS Air
Navigation Services Academy. Consequently,
DFS is pleased to join in partnership with the
EUROCONTROL Training Institute to help
meet the increasing demand for instructor
training as a first step.
As a second step, national training providers
should aim to contribute certain subjects to a
pan-European portfolio of training services. In
this context the DFS Academy is prepared to
provide advanced training for on-the-job
instructors, classroom instructors, members
of examination boards, assessors of opera-
tional competence and peer counsellors in
critical incident stress management.
Additionally the opportunity exists to dissemi-
nate information through open access cours-
es on issues such as emergency training and
the design of instrument flight procedures. As
we consider the appropriate qualification of
operational staff to be one of the key success
factors as regards safety in aviation, we are
committed to contributing to the development
of the industry through training.
by Gerhard Diener
Head of Management Services
” had not been covered by the Institute.
DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH
16
Working in partnerships (cont’d)
to develop a partnership arrange-
ment to meet the OJTI training
needs. This is a perfect example of
partnerships in action:
■ The Institute reduced the delivery
of training courses which some
stakeholders felt competed with
their own offer.
■ It signed cooperation agreements
with the training schools of those
stakeholders to provide them with
the OJTI training material and
inform them about OJTI training
needs in other Member States.
By doing so, the Institute avoided
competition with Member States.
Secondly it enabled the Member
States to provide the services on the
market. Thirdly it provided a viable
alternative to those Member States
who used the limited number of IANS
OJTI training courses to meet their number of selected EUROCONTROL
training needs. More importantly, it cre- courses to its own portfolio. These
ated significant efficiencies at the courses will now benefit from expo-
Institute, as resources previously allo- sure to a wider audience. Indeed, the
cated to the delivery of OJTI training participants will come from both serv-
courses could be allocated to the ice providers and airline operators.
development of new courses in support The mutual interactions should
of regulation. enhance the effectiveness of the
courses.
The IATA partnership
Last but not least, under the agree-
In late 2004, EUROCONTROL and ment, a significant part of the IATA
IATA, the International Air Transport course portfolio is to be made avail-
Association, signed a Memorandum of able to EUROCONTROL stakeholders
Understanding on the provision of train- at a reduced price.
ing. The Memorandum details how
EUROCONTROL and IATA will endeav-
Future partnerships
our to establish joint training courses.
This will be achieved by combining and The Institute continues to explore the
exchanging training materials and use of partnerships in order to optimise
instructors. The first effects of this use of available capacity. This will
agreement will become visible in 2005. include TRAINAIR membership, addi-
The EUROCONTROL Institute of Air tional partnerships for training delivery
Navigation Services has included in its and increased common development.
training portfolio a course on the legal
aspects of aviation. To date, this area TRAINAIR is an ICAO Programme that
The inclusion of the course in the port-
folio makes an additional course avail-
able for stakeholders at a reduced
was established with the goal of improv-
ing the safety and efficiency of air trans-
port through the establishment and
maintenance of high standards of train-
cost. Additionally, IATA has added a ing for aviation personnel on a global

Capacity and efficiency can be further
increased through common develop-
ment of training. Through partner-
ships, a single training product will be
produced by two or more partners.
Each partner will develop at its own
expense a contribution to the final
product. All partners will own the end-
product and can use the product to
serve their customers and stakehold-
ers. The benefit of this approach lies
in an optimum use of training
resources and a reduction in duplica-
tion of effort. However, this form of
cooperation remains challenging to
implement. It requires an excellent
understanding of the expected quality
and quantity of the various contribu-
tions and the rights of the partners to
Focus
maintain, modify and distribute the
final product. The European Master
Plan on e-learning development is a
prime candidate for this type of coop-
eration.
Conclusion
In recent years the Institute has both
increased and focussed its output by
developing and delivering training
which meets the needs of its stake-
holders. Further improvements will
require all stakeholders to work close-
ly together. Working together will not
only enable us to achieve our goals
but fosters the creation of mutual
understanding amongst training
providers. ■

basis. TRAINAIR has established a sys- ENAC –

tem which enables all programme mem-
bers to acquire training packages Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile
developed by other members at a cost
that does not exceed reproduction and
postage expenditure. The Institute has
taken the initial steps for becoming an
official TRAINAIR member. This will
“ As everybody knows, air traffic control is closely linked to coordination and opti-
misation. In the field of training, the EUROCONTROL Institute of Air Navigation
Services (IANS) plays a significant role in this respect, supporting as it does
result in EUROCONTROL training pack- exchange and partnership between the various European stakeholders.
ages being made available to other
TRAINAIR members. By doing so, IANS is not just a good institute or academy. It is also a good partner in fostering
EUROCONTROL will contribute to
progress in the field of training in engineering and working on new teaching meth-
improving safety and efficiency world-
wide. Access to training produced by ods such as e-learning. The main difficulty lies in sharing the best practices of the
other TRAINAIR members could various training providers, sometimes exchanging courses, sometimes working
enhance the Institute’s efficiency in together on a new project, but always trying to find the best way to ensure a win-
developing new courses. win strategy where the stakeholders enhance their know-how and find how best to
assess the imminent challenges for training in air traffic management and CNS.
The additional partnerships for training
delivery would follow the same princi- IANS, like ENAC, is doing its best to ensure that work at a European level will result
ple as the OJTI partnerships. The not in poor standardisation but in the addition of a wealth of experience and best
Institute will allow other training insti- practices among the States.
tutes to provide training with training
material owned by EUROCONTROL.
I know that there is still a long way to go, but I am also confident that the direction
These partnerships will be governed
we are taking together in the various European training groups is the right one!

”
by licence agreements which guaran-
tee fair use of this training material
amongst the stakeholders. These Farid Zizi, Deputy Director of Training and Research, ENAC
agreements will benefit stakeholders
because they will raise training capac-
ity levels.

Skyway 36 - Spring 2005 17

Focus
Online education
In addition to the classical
classroom training currently
used at the Institute, web-based
training and especially the
combination of both – which is
called “blended learning” –
offer new perspectives.
Our experience shows that these
various training delivery
methods are complementary.
by Steven
Marshall,
E-Learning
Specialist
Flavour of the month or
a developing dynamic?
It is over a decade since it was realised
that the PC, with its multimedia capabil-
ities, could become a very effective
educational tool. Although there were
difficulties to overcome, the technology
was promising.
The PC offers not only the possibility of
displaying an exciting ‘show’, but also
the means to provide instant feedback
on performance and corrective infor-
mation as appropriate.
Computer-based training (CBT) was
initially distributed on CDs to targeted
client groups. At the same time, exper-
iments with distance learning had
shown that successful education need
not be entirely classroom based. A
combination of tools, such as videos,
workbooks, specially prepared course
notes and even TV and radio broad-
casts, would allow people to study in
their own time with only occasional vis-
18
its to a tutor. This constituted a revolu-
tion in adult education.
E-learning is just one evolution of dis-
tance learning which builds on many of
the principles referred to previously. Its
novelty is the platform which it uses for
distribution: the Internet.
Despite all its potential, e-learning has
not developed as rapidly as predicted.
The obstacles to its development are
organisational issues, rather than flaws
in the medium itself. As usual with new
technologies, awareness has devel-
oped slowly. But we have clear indica-
tions that it is gaining momentum from
the student and management side.
From CBT to e-learning
modules
EUROCONTROL’s computer based
training commitment began around ten
years ago when a small CBT pro-
gramme was developed for CD delivery
at the request of the Central Flow
Management Unit. The programme
taught aircraft operators and pilots the
standard format of various messages
used by the system. Development gath-
ered pace with another CBT aimed at
the Maastricht operational display sys-
tem. Air traffic controllers had to com-
plete this programme before they
attended simulator sessions on the new
system. Around the same time a range
of modules, funded by EATM, were
developed to cover the new ‘ATC
Common Core Content’. Distributed on
CDs, these covered topics such as an
introduction to ATM, meteorology, the
theory of flight, radar theory, and infor-
mation processing and cognition.
The shift to online learning began
approximately four years ago. Some of
the earlier packages were converted for
web-based delivery. Additionally, the
range of topics was widened to include
a number of modules directed at air traf-
fic controllers’ refresher training such as
emergency situations, ACAS and
phraseology. Simultaneous-ly, the
CFMU funded the development of a
considerable number of modules to
explain its systems to users across
Europe.
Recently, a new OJTI (On-the-Job
Training Instructor) course has been
developed which combines online
learning and classroom tuition.
Students study a number of modules
online before attending a week’s class-
room based study in Luxembourg. It
takes students from around 15 to 25
hours to complete the online modules
which also involve workbook tasks
which take them away from their com-
puters in order to research how OJT is
carried out in their own countries. This
type of course is called ‘blended’ learn-
ing. Students are also able to email

each other and their instructor to talk
about their course.
5000 students have so far registered to
study an ever-increasing range of
e-learning modules.
The pros and cons
What can online education offer to our
students and to EUROCONTROL as an
Organisation?
The underlying tenet of computer-
based learning is that by providing the
learner with interactive tasks to solve,
he or she will be required to think
deeply and actively about the subject
being studied. This results in a more
thorough understanding of the subject
matter. This process is called ‘deep
learning’.
Online learning also allows students a
degree of flexibility of when and how to
study. They can control the pace at
which they work, and what and when to
revise.
We can actually run a ‘virtual classroom’
over the internet, where students all see
the same interface, but communicate
with the tutor and each other by micro-
phone or by typing in text. This software
is often used by the CFMU.
From the development point of view,
when a bug is found, it can be resolved
in one place, on the server, and all the
students will benefit immediately. This is
handled by our learning management
system, which also allows us to keep
track of who is registered for a particu-
lar course, and how much of it the vari-
ous users have studied. The system
enables us to monitor and analyse both
our performance and that of the
student.
Online learning provides a cost-effi-
cient and flexible solution for training –
Skyway 36 - Spring 2005
reducing as it does the total time spent
away from work and costs.
In the future online learning should
allow us to increase our instructor
‘bandwidth’ and reduce the demand
for classroom-based courses.
Reducing the amount of time spent in
the classroom by transferring part of or
the entire course to the internet will
enable our instructors to run some
courses more often without a corre-
sponding increase in classroom hours.
The OJTI course mentioned previously,
for example, has reduced classroom
study from two weeks to one. Of
course, the instructor cannot redistrib-
ute all of this time to another course.
Some time must be set aside to answer
emails from students or perhaps to
hold online classes, or chase up reluc-
tant students. If written work is
assigned, then the instructor will have
to spend time correcting it.
Last but not least, online learning offers
enormous potential in facilitating har-
monised training throughout the entire
European continent. Whilst there will
always be a local slant to many aspects
of training, there is also a huge amount
of common ground. If we can provide
adequate online solutions to much of
this common ground, and also provide
slots into which localised solutions can
be incorporated, we will have an awful
lot to thank the concept of online lean-
ing for. We should be aware, however,
that the task is huge.
The production process
One of the main constraints of online
learning is that the production of top
quality learning modules is a complex
process. It requires two to three people
to play a range of roles, such as sub-
ject matter expert, scriptwriter, educa-
tionalist, designer, developer and a
graphic artist. The software also calls
for an ‘owner’ to monitor its use, advise
Focus
on updates and re-start the develop-
ment process when needed.
The first step is to decide if a subject is
suitable for internet delivery. Software
development is not cheap and it must
be worthwhile. The main factors domi-
nating this equation are student num-
bers, their geographical spread and the
stability or volatility of the course con-
tent.
Once a project is started, the
scriptwriter, subject matter expert and
developer select the most appropriate
type of course to transfer knowledge,
i.e. is it designed for self-study, as a
blended learning component, or in a
classroom with some instructor supervi-
sion? Then, they design and implement
the script and deliver the software.
Validation and
maintenance
When designing the course, developers
should comply with an appropriate syl-
labus, such as the Common Core
Content, so that other people or official
bodies may validate it if they feel it
meets stipulated requirements.
If the course is to have a long life, it
must be frequently reassessed.
Periodically, surgery will be required on
a major or minor basis. Maintenance
can take up far more resources than
many expect, and failure to plan for it
from the outset might lead to a course
losing its value.
Repositories and standards
Ideally, any module could be seamless-
ly integrated into different courses. In
reality, this is rarely possible since each
course has its own specific focus. But
many components may be the same,
whether images, chunks of text or inter-
activity, or other resources that can be
easily ‘tweaked’.

19
Focus
This is the theory behind repositories,
which are online resource libraries
dedicated to specific themes and
built around ‘taxonomies’ – systems
of classification. Registered users
can download resources from and
upload those they wish to share to
these sites. We would like to develop
EUROCONTROL’s own repository to
help developers throughout the
Member States save time and money.
Underpinning all of this is the issue of
standards. Some of these are widely
known and understood, such as the
file format. Producing images using
the .jpg format ensures that they will
be universally viewable. We choose
our software development tools pre-
cisely because they guarantee com-
pliance with these standards. With
regard to our learning management
system, it adheres to the industrial
standard ‘IMS SCORM’, so that we
can move our contents to any plat-
form based on that standard.
To make the most of our resources,
our original e-learning template was
designed to be compatible with the
most popular browser, Internet
Explorer. However, for a number of
organisations, this was not the pre-
ferred choice. Our response has
been to try to accommodate this
diversity of demand by ensuring that
our next template will be ‘browser
independent’, so that our courses will
be accessible to a greater variety of
platforms.
An e-learning master plan
There are e-learning developments
currently underway among most of
the European stakeholders. If we are
to avoid duplication we need to share
ideas and resources.
This is why EUROCONTROL propos-
es to coordinate the online education
ATM efforts in an e-learning master
plan as part of the Sense pro-
gramme. ■
20
ATC Refresher Training
A range of ATC refresher training e-learning modules has been developed in
cooperation with Maastricht UAC. The purpose is to provide refresher training to
Maastricht controllers to assist them in meeting ESARR 5 requirements.
Modules have been produced covering a number of topics. These include:
ACAS Providing the essential theoretical knowledge relating
to TCAS equipment
Aerodynamics and Reviewing performance of aircraft in the departure,
performance cruise and approach phases
ARTAS A review of the basic concepts of ARTAS
Aircraft recognition Test knowledge of aircraft recognition
Aircraft performance A comprehensive set of data covering the perform-
ance and configuration of most aircraft types
CPDLC Providing an introduction to and overview of this topic
DOC 7030 Covering relevant parts of the document that are
of daily interest
ESARR 5 A controller's guide to this document
Level bust To increase awareness of the level bust problem
Mach number – Application of Mach number restrictions to aircraft
speed control in the cruise
PRNAV Precision navigation in the terminal environment
Phraseologies Check phraseologies against those that should be
used
SSR Mode S Providing an introduction to and overview of this topic
Unusual/emergency The effect of various emergencies and their
situations repercussions for ATC
The majority of the mod-
ules are generic, allow-
ing Member States to use
them in order to meet
their ATC refresher train-
ing requirements. A num-
ber of countries are in the
process of taking up this
option which allows them
to create their own online
courses from the mod-
ules available. It also
allows them to manage
their own students within the EUROCONTROL Learning management System
(LMS). The LMS allows grouping of students with courses and gives the local
instructor the ability to monitor the student progress through the various modules.
Maastricht UAC estimates savings through the use of e-learning for refresher
of e150,000 to 200,000 per annum.
training, instead of the traditional classroom based approach, to be in the order

The use of e-learning:
the CFMU example
The Institute has provided resources
and knowledge to assist the CFMU in
setting up its e-learning environment.
In the early 90s the Institute developed
computer based training modules cov-
ering the CFMU and the IFPS. These
modules were delivered by diskette
and proved to be a useful method of
disseminating training to the various
airlines and flow units concerned.
In 2002 the Institute and the CFMU
again collaborated in the development
of e-learning based CFMU training
modules which were delivered via the
Institute’s Learning Management
System (LMS).
Research and activities have also been
carried out at the Institute on the use of
“virtual classrooms”. These are
Internet-based classrooms with real
students taking part in presentations
given by an online instructor. The soft-
ware allows two way voice communica-
tion and the use of various online tools
such as a whiteboard and application
sharing. The CFMU quickly adopted
this technology and now uses the “vir-
tual classroom” to provide training to
people in many locations worldwide.
For 2005, the CFMU has already
scheduled close to 300 one day train-
ing sessions to be delivered via the vir-
tual classroom.
Throughout this period of cooperation
with the CFMU, the policy was to
transfer the knowledge to make the
CFMU self-sufficient in e-learning.
This was achieved and the CFMU now
manages its own e-learning courses
through the EUROCONTROL LMS,
provides “virtual classrooms” through
the EUROCONTROL CENTRA system
and develops its own e-learning train-
ing material. ■ the ATM network.
Skyway 36 - Spring 2005
ROMATSA:
Poised for future
challenges
In December 2004, the new Romanian
ATM system completed one year of safe
and efficient operations. Today ROMATSA
is taking another step towards the
provision of excellent services and
greater cost-effectiveness.
In the course of the last ten years, the
European air traffic management sys-
tem (ATM) has been under continu-
ous pressure to combat congestion
and reduce delays. Numerous oper-
ational and technical changes were
made to adapt ATM systems to meet
the emerging requirements and to
provide enough capacity to handle
the expected growth of air transport,
while increasing safety, security and
environmental protection.
With the adoption of the Single
European Sky initiative, European
States have firmly committed them-
selves to finding solutions to air-
space structure and related prob-
lems in order to achieve maximum
synergies among all the players of
Stakeholder Forum
by Bogdan Donciu,
ROMATSA Director
It is against this backdrop General,
that the Romanian avia- and
tion community has
engaged in implementing
important changes in its
own ATM system. The
Romanian Air Traffic
Services Administration
(ROMATSA) has inter alia
recently completed a
project for the modernisa- Vakis Korfiatis,
tion of the country’s ATM EUROCONTROL LCIP
system, thus bringing the Contact Person
and EIS Programme
provision of air navigation
Manager for Romania
services into line with
international standards and meeting the
challenges generated by the require-
ments of the aeronautical industry.
The programme was formulated in 1991,
launched in 1993 and became opera-

21
Stakeholder Forum

tional in November 2003. It was com-

pleted in January 2005.

The main objectives of the programme

were to:

■ modernise the systems and facilities

of the three Air Traffic Control Centres
(ACCs) at Bucharest, Constanta and
Arad;
■ achieve full double radar coverage
within their airspace with the installa-
tion of five new Monopulse
Secondary Surveillance Radars
(MSSRs) and their integration with
military radars;
■ improve the coverage of the Doppler
VHF Omnidirectional Range (DVOR)
and Distance Measuring Equipment
(DME);
■ install automated Flight Data and
Radar Processing systems;
■ upgrade the communication sys-
tems;
■ ensure the transition of the ATM sys-
tem to a single centre at three loca-
tions instead of the previous five;
■ install five Meteorological Doppler
Radars; and
■ integrate Air Traffic Control Towers.
Based on these objectives, various sub-
systems were implemented, such as:
■ Data and voice telecommunication
network;
■ Aeronautical Fixed Telecommuni-
cation Network/Common ICAO Data
Interchange Network (AFTN/CIDIN)
message switch;
■ Radio communications by-pass
system;
■ VHF air-ground communication
sites/stations;
■ Satellite communications;
■ Voice recording and replay system;
■ Information display system;
■ Communications gateway;
■ Air traffic control training facility
(SIMULATOR); and
■ Meteorological Integrated Systems.
Alenia Marconi System (AMS) provided
the majority of the equipment. Other
The new operations room in Bucharest
subsystems were developed in cooper-
ation with THALES, NICE, TOPEX,
CISCO, VAISALA etc. and integrated
by ROMATSA’s specialists.
Five major steps were implemented:
■ 1995: Arad Air Traffic Services (ATS)
Unit became operational;
■ 1997: Constanta ATS Unit became
operational;
■ 2001: the new ACC building in
Bucharest was constructed and
equipment installed;
■ 19 November 2003: the most signifi-
cant milestone was achieved, when
the new ATM system entered into
operational use;
■ 19 January 2005: an updated ver-
sion of software was implemented
and the programme was completed.
However, the biggest challenge was to
familiarise the staff with the newly estab-
lished procedures and working environ-
ment under safe conditions. Almost 600
employees, air traffic controllers, air
information controllers, technical and
military staff received the appropriate
training. The training of the staff
involved in the safety and quality man-
agement of organisational structures
was also taken seriously. It was provid-
ed internally, at accredited training cen-
tres, and at the EUROCONTROL
Institute of Air Navigation Services.
As regards the business environment,
safety regulation and safety manage-
ment are separated at organisational
level. The separation between the reg-
ulatory (Romanian Civil Aviation
Authority, RCAA) and the service
provider (Romanian Air Traffic Services
Administration, ROMATSA) became
effective in Romania in 1991. The
authorisation and supervision of air traf-
fic services within Bucharest FIR is the
responsibility of the RCAA while air traf-
fic services are provided by ROMATSA.
ROMATSA operates one ACC in
Bucharest, at three locations:
Bucharest, Arad and Constanta, and a
co-located Aerodrome and Approach
Control facility at Bucharest. Besides
these operational units, ROMATSA
operates Aerodrome and Approach
Control Services at Romania’s 17 civil
airports.

22

The flexible use of airspace concept
(FUA) has been fully implemented in
Romania. A joint civil-military Airspace
Management Council is responsible for
the establishment of policy and air-
space management at national level.
Also, Romania has implemented the
ICAO airspace classification of Class C
Airspace above FL 195.
In 2004, the average growth in traffic of
14.56% within Bucharest FIR signifi-
cantly exceeded the highest European-
wide growth of 4.8%. This traffic
increase did not however generate any
ATFM delays. It is expected that the
total number of flights will again
increase by 12% in 2005. The capacity
plan covers future increases in traffic
demand forecast by the high-growth
scenario.
As an air navigation service provider,
ROMATSA maintains a competitive
environment, designed for safe and
high-quality services, with benefits for
the users representing a top priority.
ROMATSA is an autonomous, self-
financing, State-owned organisation.
Skyway 36 - Spring 2005
The Administrative Council (AC), which
supervises ROMATSA, consists of rep-
resentatives of the Ministry of Transport,
Ministry of Defence and Ministry of
Public Finance. The AC is also respon-
sible for strategic decisions regarding
the development of Romanian air navi-
gation services. Management deci-
sions within the framework of
ROMATSA’s responsibilities remain with
the Board of Directors under the chair-
manship of the Director General of
ROMATSA.
Safety is the main concern for
ROMATSA’s management and work-
force. ROMATSA currently maintains
and is continuously improving an effi-
cient safety management system in line
with ESARR 3.
ROMATSA is also developing and
implementing a quality management
system for all fields of activity, which
has already provided fruitful results. An
ISO 9001: 2000 certification process is
in place, and should be successfully
completed by 2006. This includes certi-
fication of ACC and tower air traffic
services, aeronautical information and
meteorological services. Important
progress was made when the ATS units
of Bacau, Iasi and Suceava and the AIS
of “Henri Coanda” Airport were certified
in 2004 by Bureau Veritas Quality
International.
Within the framework of the Single
European Sky initiative, European air-
space is to be redesigned into
Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs) to
meet the requirements arising from the
growth in traffic, and will no longer be
confined by national borders. Moreover,
the Single Sky initiative and the ATM
2000+ Strategy promote regional coor-
dination with neighbouring States by
identifying mutually dependent actions.
As a follow-up to a workshop on ATM
cooperation in south-eastern Europe,
held on 17 and 18 October 2002 in
Bucharest, the Directors General of
Civil Aviation of Bulgaria, Moldova,
Romania and Turkey signed in
Stakeholder Forum
Strasbourg on 8 July 2003 a
Memorandum of Understanding for the
Establishment of ATM Cooperation and
Coordination in South-Eastern Europe
(ACE). The main objective is to optimise
collective capacity in order to increase
the safety, performance and cost effi-
ciency of air navigation services in the
area whilst paying due attention to the
national security requirements and the
protection of the environment. Two fruit-
ful meetings of the ACE Steering
Committee have already been held, in
Sofia in May 2004 and Bucharest in
October 2004, and follow-up actions
are being taken.
In this respect, ROMATSA and ATSA
Bulgaria have signed at Director
General level a common agreement
relating to the initiative for the creation
of the pre-requisites for the establish-
ment of a Functional Airspace Block.
As for cooperation with EURO-
CONTROL, ROMATSA is actively par-
ticipating in various teams and fora. At
ROMATSA’s request the Stakeholder
Implementation Service Business Unit
(SIS), through the EUROCONTROL
Implementation Support (EIS) function,
has been providing assistance since
2000, helping to achieve these positive
results. EUROCONTROL has inter alia
performed a system assessment, which
concluded that the system as a whole,
including human factors, buildings,
equipment, airspace management and
procedures, is “suitable for its purpose
and EATM compliant”. EUROCONTROL
is currently supporting ROMATSA in
developing a new Strategic Business
Plan, improving its accounting system
(ROMANAS project) and enhancing the
quality of the engineering and mainte-
nance support for the equipment
(ROMQoSIP project). ■
23
Stakeholder Forum
ATM training in SENASA
SENASA, Sociedad para las
Enseñanzas Aéronauticas
Civiles S.A, is the Spanish
body responsible for the
training of aeronautical
professionals as well as
providing technical backup
on operational inspection
and safety matters to the
Spanish Directorate
General of Civil Aviation
(Dirección General de
Aviación Civil de España).
Since 1995 SENASA has
been collaborating with Aena,
the Spanish air navigation
and airports authority in the
field of training of air traffic
controllers among other pro-
fessionals. This collaboration
was further reinforced in 2002
by Pilar Arranz
Notario, Director with the opening of a new
of Training, 6120 m2 building dedicated
SENASA exclusively to ATC simulation.
The building houses the following equip-
ment: three 360º visual aerodrome simu-
lators convertible into six 180° simula-
tors; three en route /approach simulators
with six SCUs, each one convertible into
36 operational control positions, and
four computer-based training rooms with
24 student positions in each, which can
interact simultaneously as PCs (includ-
ing an LMS for e-learning training) or as
pre-simulators. All the facilities work with
the operating system employed by
Aena, with the SACTA system
(Automated Air Traffic Control System)
also using the same equipment. They
are therefore a faithful reflection of its
24
SENASA’s new ATC simulations building
ATC rooms. Setting up facilities of this
working capacity posed a great chal-
lenge for all the professionals of Aena
and SENASA and called upon their
wealth of technical and teaching skills.
As a result of this effort it is now possible
for us to reproduce any aerodrome sce-
nario or part of airspace in the world and
to provide students, whether ab initio or
operational, with an exact replica of the
real operational conditions, the environ-
ment, the workloads or any conflict situ-
ations. The same goes for the centre’s
other main activity, ATC simulations.
Here it is possible to generate macro-
scenarios by connecting up aerodrome
scenarios and en route/approach simu-
lators, as was done with the reproduc-
tion of the future airport of Madrid
Barajas and its approach airspace. The
SACTA system can be put through its
paces in diverse operational scenarios
and with high traffic loads, as in the case
of the simulations carried out for NATS
with the airspace of Scotland.
As far as the teaching side goes, new
training methodologies have been
developed. Centring on the human ele-
ment, these then take into consideration
all the factors that impinge on the con-
trollers’ work: specifically, the structuring
of their knowledge, the decision-taking
system for the tasks they carry out, the
technologies they handle and the envi-
ronment they work in.
All the training syllabuses are designed
according to the following principles:
■ The teaching contents are drawn up
in accordance with the controller’s
cognitive system, which has under-
gone substantial changes in recent
years due to the ongoing automa-
tion process. Today’s systems sup-
ply a great deal of information,
Tower
simulator,
new
Madrid
Barajas
Airport
scenario

which then needs to be processed
and prioritised. Hands-on training in
an environment as close as possi-
ble to real operational conditions is
essential for mastering all this input
properly.
■ In all the projects based on the new
information technologies, we
endeavour to bring home to both
instructors and students the impor-
tance of harnessing all the possibil-
ities these offer. Special stress is
laid on such aspects as teamwork
and decision-making processes.
■ The syllabuses aim to tap into
adults’ learning processes. They
therefore have a high experimental
content, whereby new knowledge is
acquired by problem-solving and
an immediate practical application.
The thorough work carried out jointly
by Aena and SENASA has involved the
collaboration of many professionals
from both organisations (instructors,
teachers, technicians, computer devel-
opers, engineers, suppliers, admin
staff, documentalists and their respec-
tive executive teams). The upshot is a
school capable of taking on with a fair
degree of optimism the challenges
posed to aeronautical training by the
various European harmonisation pro-
grammes and also of keeping up with
the break-neck changes in operating
systems and equipment.
Skyway 36 - Spring 2005
This whole process has been greatly
facilitated by the work carried out by the
Institute of Air Navigation Services in the
framework of the successive conver-
gence and implementation programmes
of EUROCONTROL. The training cours-
es organised at the Institute have
enabled thousands of professionals
from Member States to be trained up in
a very high number of ATM domains. No
less significant and perhaps even more
strategic is its advice-giving work, mate-
rialised in the drawing-up of training
methodologies and, above all, the
design and development of standards.
In coming years, the two great pro-
grammes for harmonising European
air navigation systems, the EURO-
CONTROL ATM 2000+ strategy and the
EU Single European Sky initiative, are
going to have a significant
effect on the curricula of
the various ATM training
centres in Europe and
especially on the training
of air traffic controllers.
These training and instruc-
tion syllabuses now have
to be fleshed out with the
new contents deriving
from safety legislation. We
believe that a key role in
this whole process is
bound to be played by the
EUROCONTROL Training
Institute.
Stakeholder Forum
The common core content is a good
precedent for this work. Along these
lines the Institute could draw up, in
liaison with Member States, frame-
work curricula (which might also
serve as standards) in strategic
areas. Examples might be refresher
operational training curricula that
take in all the basic safety proce-
dures and concepts or training cur-
ricula for instructors, supervisors
and safety experts according to
ESARR requirements. The Institute
has all the necessary experts, expe-
rience and knowledge for backing
up schools in developing both their En-route
theoretical and practical safety syl- simulator
labuses. It also has the suitable fora
for debating the terms of these proj-
ects involving Member States. These
fora could also serve as meeting
points for States to swap notes,
share their concerns and carry out
joint projects.
These are times of thoroughgoing
change and we at SENASA work in the
conviction that sound training and
instruction can make a decisive contri-
bution to the harmonisation of different
technical and operational systems,
while also helping to guarantee the
necessary levels of safety in the provi-
sion of air navigation services in a con-
stantly evolving environment such as
that of air transport. ■
25
Interview
Financing ATM training
Representing training
interests from Member
States, the Training
Consultation Group is
responsible for advising
the EUROCONTROL Director
General and the Institute
Director on the vision and
strategy of the Training
Institute and the work nec-
essary to achieve agreed
long-term targets. Skyway
interviewed Dragheim
recently posing a series of
questions relating to the
financing of the Institute,
its relations with other
training centres and its
added-value in contribut-
ing to the sharing of
knowledge and experience
in ATM training among all
European States.
How is the EUROCONTROL
Institute of Air Navigation
Services financed?
The EUROCONTROL Institute of Air
Navigation Services is financed
through the common EUROCONTROL
budget. This means that it is financed
by the Member States via their contri-
butions. This goes for the Institute as
such. It is however important to mention
that the ATC training provided to the
Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre
is financed through a separate budget,
with contributions for this budget com-
ing from the four States involved in
Maastricht.
26
Nils la Cour
Dragheim,
Deputy Director Human Resources at
Naviair, is also the Chairman of the
EUROCONTROL Institute’s Training
Consultation Group
Why is the Institute
financed in this way?
The Member States agreed to intro-
duce this financing system when the
Institute was established. The rationale
back then was to guarantee equal and
fair access to unique and essential
training for all Member States. As
things currently stand, any Member
State can request course places at the
Institute and thereby take advantage of
the training which is provided or coor-
dinated by the different experts at the
Institute. Over the past few years, how-
ever, this common financing has been
questioned.
Why has the financing
question been raised?
I believe that there are a number of rea-
sons. Firstly it must be said that the
issue was first raised by the Institute
itself after certain States had made
some comments on it at a couple of
meetings of the Training Consultation
Group. Back then, the issue was
brought up in connection with a discus-
sion about competition. It was not very
clear whether the Institute was actually
competing with ATC schools and acad-
emies in the same Member States who
contributed financially to the Institute.
Consequently, Member States felt they
were supporting an institution which
competed with their own training estab-
lishments. Such a situation was of
course not sustainable and it was
agreed that any such competition
should cease. This concern was heard
and action was taken, so that the
Institute today does not compete with
training institutions in the Member
States.
Secondly the question has been raised
again recently because training today is
free of charge. Member States just pay
for travel expenses, accommodation
and an allowance, while the service pro-
vided by the Institute is free. But not all
Member States take advantage of this.
In particular some of the bigger States
have created their own training environ-
ments. For obvious reasons they cannot
just give away free course places to
external customers.
Is competition still an issue
then?
Competition in its traditional sense is not
an issue any more. The Institute has
taken measures to avoid competing with
Member States. At recent TCG meet-
ings, all participating Member States
have confirmed that they do not find the
Institute's activities to be in competition
with their own service provision. The
Institute's portfolio is continuously evalu-
ated in order to maintain this situation.
Furthermore, States recognise that the
Institute provides unique training within
a pan-European approach, which is not

matched by any other body. A base line
for the course content, training methods
and training material, thereby attracting
course participants from all Member
States which adds even more value to
the courses.
I find it extremely valuable that col-
leagues get to meet one another and
exchange ideas, thoughts and solutions
from time to time. The networks which
are established in this context should
not be underestimated.
Yet the financing question
continues to surface from
time to time?
Yes, it is a hot issue and there are pros
and cons to it. You can argue that it is
necessary to see a link between a serv-
ice provided and a price to be paid. It is
a good argument, but it has to be offset
with the consequences of for example
charging. Some Member States have
expressed the view that they would like
to see a charging mechanism, but not
necessarily full cost recovery, with some
elements still being financed through a
common budget.
What are the arguments
against charging?
I think it is more than a habit that many
international organisations jointly share
costs in different projects. It is an
acknowledgement that we are operating
in a cross-national environment and that
all of us, as well as our customers, ben-
efit from commonly driven development
initiatives to improve safety, efficiency
and effectiveness for aviation as a
whole. I think that’s what drives the
majority of the TCG Member States in
their opposition to charging. You have to
realise that a number of European States
and providers need the support of the
Agency in order to develop further their
organisation and provide the sophisti-
Skyway 36 - Spring 2005
cated technical tools required to accom-
modate the capacity needs of tomorrow.
Other States need to enhance their ATM
skills and knowledge by taking advan-
tage of the training programmes provid-
ed at the Institute.
In the TCG meetings you hear the
remark that smaller States have cofi-
nanced a number of projects aimed at
dealing with the problems in the core
traffic area, despite the fact that these
project deliverables are of no immediate
benefit to them. Also they mention that
they have agreed to finance the past
pension obligations despite being mem-
bers for just a short time. They probably
do this because they believe that the
EUROCONTROL Organisation is built
on the cornerstones of cooperation,
understanding and solidarity.
Without any doubt some of these States
have an urgent need for the ATM training
courses offered by the Institute. Indeed,
one of the main benefits presented to
States during their initial membership
discussions with EUROCONTROL was
that they would be eligible for free
advanced ATM training at the Institute.
Personally I do not think it is too much to
ask the 34 Member States to take a
holistic view and continue to finance the
15 ATM instructors in Luxembourg from
the general budget. To me it is clearly in
the interests of enhancing the general
levels of ATM knowledge and aware-
ness in Europe.
Charging would presumably put some
stakeholders in a very difficult situation.
Indeed, some military stakeholders and
State authorities would not be able to
afford the charges from their own budg-
ets. It could mean that these stakehold-
ers could no longer participate in the
training programmes. There are exam-
ples of Member States where the service
providers make a financial contribution
towards the travelling arrangements of
military and civil-aviation participants in
Interview
the Institute's courses. To me this clearly
signals the budgetary constraints facing
these organisations.
It may also be worth looking into the cost
of operating the charging mechanism.
Charging would have to encompass the
associated administrative costs of run-
ning the system. This would either result
in even higher prices or reduce the con-
tribution margin significantly.
What is the majority view?
From the TCG-meetings it is my clear
perception that the majority of Member
States support the present financing of
the Institute through the common budg-
et. Only a few representatives from
States with their own well-established
national training and development insti-
tutions bring up the issue from time to
time.
Finally, as the TCG
Chairman, how do you see
the future of the Institute?
I believe that the Institute is clearly on
the right track. The non-competition
policy takes the issue off the agenda.
There has been an exemplary efficien-
cy initiative resulting in lower costs,
higher quality and better utilisation of
resources. The Institute has focused
especially on safety training and safety
regulation training over recent years
and has established partnerships with
IATA as well as with some of the
Member States' training institutions. To
this must be added the fact that the
Institute today is a very open-minded
and transparent organisation with an
extrovert attitude, where senior man-
agement officials make regular cus-
tomer visits to the Member States. The
dialogue during these consultations
helps the Institute to adjust its course
content and maintain its speed and rate
of climb as the centre of excellence in
both ATM training and training develop-
27
 ATC Maastricht 2005
Date lines
A resounding success!
On 1-3 February 2005,
EUROCONTROL took part
in the ATC Maastricht
Conference and Exhibition.
Over the last 14 years the
event has attracted the
world’s leading suppliers
of ATC and ATM
equipment and services
alongside the key
specifiers and buyers in
the market.
ATC Maastricht 2005 proved once
again that it is the premier event of the
industry, attracting over 4,000 atten-
dees from around the world. The num-
ber of people attending the event rose
by 7% compared to the previous year.
Whilst the majority of visitors still come
from Europe, the number of non-
European visitors continued to grow
rapidly, moving the event from its tradi-
tional European roots to the No. 1 posi-
tion in the global industry calendar.
The biggest increases in the number of
visitors from outside Europe came from
the Americas, Australasia and the
Pacific region. The quality of visitors was
also exceptional: 14% of visitors belong
to senior management, 6% to general
management while 20% are involved in
engineering and 10% cite air traffic con-
troller/officer as their job function.
This year's event also featured the
largest number of ATC/ATM suppliers
anywhere in the world – over 160
exhibitors from 25 countries – a 10%
increase on 2004.
EUROCONTROL once again took part
in this leading ATC event. Its stand fea-
tured a wide array of programmes:
28
■ ATM Master Plan, EMOSIA (The
European Model for Strategic ATM
Investment Analysis)
■ Departure Manager (DMAN) demon-
stration
■ EAD services and functionalities
■ EUROCONTROL’s trans-national sta-
tistics & forecasting service
■ SSAP & Level Bust Toolkit demonstra-
tion
■ New CFMU HMI & CIR
■ ECHOES – EUROCONTROL Conso-
lidated HMI for Operations, evalua-
tions & Simulations
■ AIT – Aircraft Identification Tag
■ ATC Refresher Trainer Package
■ New Part Task Radar Skills trainer
ATC Maastricht Conference
The 2005 ATC Maastricht Conference
enhanced ATC Maastricht as the world's
premier ATM event by attracting dele-
gates and speakers from around the
world while continuing to highlight the
political and industrial events in Europe,
such as the Single European Sky. The
subject of the Conference was develop-
ing trans-national ATM services, a topic
which is both global and currently
extremely relevant to all air navigation
service providers.
The Conference brought record num-
bers of key decision-makers together
from the USA and the new Commission
representatives in Europe. It also fea-
tured a new focus on the military element
of ATM with speakers from NATO, the
German Air Force and the aerospace
research arm of the US Federal Aviation
Administration.
From the EUROCONTROL side, the
Director General Víctor M. Aguado, deliv-
ered a keynote address at the
Conference entitled “Taking ATM’s good
performance even further"; the topic
addressed by Bo Redeborn, Director of
ATM Strategies, was "Current and future
challenges of European ATM: capacity,
safety, cost-efficiency” and Alex
Hendriks, Head of the Airspace, Flow
Management and Navigation Business
Division, discussed “Functional airspace
blocks and how they will work".
ATC Maastricht Awards
The Individual Contribution to ATM
Award was awarded to Alex Hendriks,
EUROCONTROL’s Head of Airspace,
Flow Management and Navigation
Business Division.
Alex began his career as an air traffic
controller in the 1970s, rising up the
ranks to become Head of ATC proce-
dures for the Dutch service provider in
1986, and Executive Vice-President
Technical of IFATCA. He joined EURO-
 CONTROL in 1991 and has become a leading
figure in Europe’s evolving airspace design.
Victor M.
Aguado, Among his many achievements, Alex was
Director instrumental in setting up an integrated
General of process for European airspace and ATS route
EUROCONTROL, network planning and implementation. He
speaking to
played a vital role in ensuring the acceptance
the press
by European States of the flexible use of air-
space concept, and has managed its imple-
mentation in various phases.

Alex took the lead in introducing basic RNAV

in Europe, creating the business and safety
case upon which the JAA accepted GPS for
en route navigation and thus paving the way
for Europe to become the first full continental
RNAV airspace in the world.

Bo Rederborn,
He was one of the driving forces behind the
Director ATM
European RVSM initiative and served as
Strategies,
EUROCONTROL Chairman of the RVSM Steering Group. He
took the initiative to create a multi-agency
forum with the FAA and Nav Canada to devel-
op new global ATC procedures. The forum
now provides direct input to ICAO. Not least
Alex Hendriks,
Head of among his achievements, Alex is an airline
Airspace, pilot, flying B-737s since 1998.
Flow Mana-
gement and Next year's event will be held on 14-16
Navigation, February 2006 and is expected to continue
EUROCONTROL
to bring together even more people from
receives Jane’s
around the world to share experience,
Award for
Individual expertise and knowledge, and to do busi-
Contribution ness. EUROCONTROL will continue to sup-
to ATM port the event. ■

Skyway 36 - Spring 2005 29

 9-10 December 2004, France
Date lines
Third EUROCONTROL
innovative research workshop
The EUROCONTROL Innovative Research Workshop took
place on 9-10 December 2004 at the Organisation’s
Experimental Centre in Bretigny-sur-Orge, France. More
than 150 people, representing various sectors of air
transport from more than 20 different European countries,
attended the two-day workshop.
Advanced ATM concepts, emerging
technologies applied to ATM, applied
research studies, EUROCONTROL
coordinated actions (CARE) and its
Innovative Research Strategy were all
topics on the agenda.
An exhibition ran in parallel to the work-
shop, where 15 external partners pre-
sented their innovative research activi-
ties, focusing on emerging human-
30
machine interfaces mixing animation
and sound, and airport applications.
The event generated fruitful discus-
sions and exchanges of ideas among
all attendees.
The ultimate goals of the event, namely
to promote the exchange of ideas
between multi-disciplinary experts and
EUROCONTROL’s innovative activities
in ATM, were fully achieved. It is hoped
that this workshop will become a key
event for European ATM innovation
research in the near future.
The highlight of the Workshop was
the creation of the first EURO-
CONTROL Joint Research Lab
between the French Ecole Pratique
des Hautes Etudes and the
Experimental Centre. Representing
the two partners at the ceremony to
sign the agreement were Ms Courtel,
President of the French Ecole
Pratique des Hautes Etudes
Sorbonne, and Pierre Andribet, the
Centre’s Core Business Manager.
This new Joint Research Lab is a first
attempt to create a network of
European universities dedicated to
backbone thinking for ATM. It will be
specialising in the modeling of the
ATM system in which human cogni-
tion will be analysed from a complex
system modeling approach. This is in
line with ACARE SRA 2, which has
identified modeling as an important
prerequisite for future improvements
in ATM.
This Lab is located at the Experimental
Centre and has taken the name of the
Laboratory for Complex System
Modeling and Cognition (CSMC). As
part of the agreement, five senior
research scientists and professors from
EPHE are partially seconded to the lab-
oratory to conduct research and to
supervise PhD students’ work, and EEC
staff will gradually increase their teach-
ing activities at EPHE.
This joint research lab will enable the
sharing of expertise, knowledge and
experimentation resources from both
sides. Currently limited to two initial
partners, this joint research lab will
work towards getting other European
partners onboard.
The 4th EUROCONTROL Innovative
Research Workshop will take place on
6-8 December 2005. For the first time, it
will not focus on EUROCONTROL
Innovative research only, but it will give
the floor to external partners to present
their innovative research projects.
Also, as for the 3rd workshop, an exhibi-
tion area will be open for any external
partner to present their activities.
Further information will be provided in
due course. ■
For more information, please contact:
■ Marc Brochard
EEC Innovative Research Area deputy
manager
marc.brochard@eurocontrol.int
■ Martina Jurgens
EEC Innovative Research Area assistant
martina.jurgens@eurocontrol.int
EEC Innovative Research Area
http://www.eurocontrol.int/eec/public/
standard_page/INO.html
Skyway 36 - Spring 2005 31
Re port
Farewell to
Jean-Marc Garot
Jean-Marc Garot became Director of the EUROCONTROL
Experimental Centre (EEC) on 1 May 1995. In his 10-year
mandate, he has succeeded in turning the EEC from a
simulation facility into a truly European ATM research
centre widely recognised.
To do this, Jean-Marc brought about
changes in the organisational structure
of the Centre, with the introduction of a
matrix system, drastically cutting down
the number of hierarchical levels. He
encouraged staff at all levels to take on
additional responsibilities and actively
promoted mobility, not only within the
Centre but also at Agency level and
through secondments to other research
establishments.
Jean-Marc also felt early on the impor-
tance of consulting stakeholders
through ECCG meetings and regular
satisfaction surveys (1997). The EEC
was the leading Agency Directorate to
formulate a Business Plan together with
a Staff Plan and Training Plan. The
implementation of quarterly budget
32
checkpoints ensured the optimum use
of the budget allocated to the EEC.
Under Jean-Marc’s impetus, the Centre
has been at the leading edge of inno-
vative human resources projects, often
launching pilot phases for the rest of
the Agency: part-time working, tele-
working, revised performance apprais-
al process, open promotion process, to
mention but a few.
Internal communication was encour-
aged and facilitated through the imple-
mentation of a number of newsgroups
and weekly information corners. The
renovation of the building in 2000 also
clearly contributed to improving the
exchange of information within the
Centre through the numerous meeting
rooms and informal meeting spaces
that were created. But the new building
is also evidence that the EEC wishes to
facilitate research through the organi-
sation of workshops at its premises.
Between 1998 and 2004 the Centre’s
overall EFQM score doubled, attesting
to the commitment of the EEC to busi-
ness excellence.
Throughout his mandate, Jean-Marc
has worked constantly for greater
cooperation and efficiency in European
ATM research and to this end he has
played a leading role in the Advisory
Council for Aeronautics Research in
Europe (ACARE).
Thanks to Jean-Marc, the EEC work
programme structure is now aligned
with a future ATM Master Plan. The
Centre is also endowed with a renewed
mission: to play a leading role in
research relevant to the safe, efficient,
and environmentally-sustainable man-
agement and operation of the Euro-
pean ATM system.
Jean-Marc leaves his position on
1 April as Director of the EURO-
CONTROL Experimental Centre for the
French General Inspectorate for Civil
Aviation and Meteorology. ■

Introduction of
automatic controller-
pilot data link
communications
breaks new ground
Automatic data link communications between the cockpit
and the ground have recently been implemented at
EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre.
This groundbreaking development comes just 20 months
after the operational introduction of controller-pilot data
link communications (CPDLC) on all sectors.
A tribute to
Mikko Talvitie
It was with equal shock and sadness that EURO-
CONTROL learned of the death in a road accident
on 17 March 2005 of Mikko Talvitie, until recently
the President of the Provisional Council.
As one of the key figures in Finnish aviation, Mikko
Talvitie was the first head of their Civil Aviation
Administration and it was under him that close links
with EUROCONTROL were forged.

Following a recent upgrade, the air
traffic control (ATC) system now has
the capability to uplink fully automati-
cally (i.e. without the need for any
human intervention) a secondary
radar (SSR) code change to any
CPDLC–equipped aircraft that
requires it. The air traffic controller
monitors and verifies the information
automatically uplinked by the system
to the aircraft in the normal way.
Importantly, the air traffic controller
also has over-ride of the functionality,
and can stop the automatic uplink if
required.
The new data link service is available
to all aircraft that are currently con-
ducting data link operations with the
Maastricht Centre. This automatic
messaging system will save valuable
voice communication time for air traf-
fic controllers and allow them to con-
centrate more on their core tasks.
"Mentally, this is a big step for con-
trollers, but one they are keen to take"
says Paul Conroy, who co-ordinates
data link implementation at the
Centre. "They have happily adapted
to this new way of working, delegat-
ing some of their workload to the
system."
On average, 1000 aircraft exchange
data link messages on a monthly
basis with the Maastricht Centre. The
number of participating airlines has
been steadily increasing since June
2003, and new partners are regularly
joining the programme.
Controller-pilot data link implementa-
tion in Europe is being co-ordinated
by EUROCONTROL's LINK 2000+
Programme. Support for the introduc-
tion of automatic CPDLC will be pro-
vided by the new CASCADE
Programme, that coordinates the
implementation of a first set of ADS-B
applications and more CPDLC servic-
es building on the infrastructures
deployed by the Mode S and LINK
2000+ Programmes.
"This is a good illustration of how our
programmes build on each others’
achievements", says George Paulson,
Director of ATM Programmes, "and we
are pleased to see that Maastricht con-
tinues to play a leading role in the
implementation of new technologies." ■
Finland joined EATCHIP in 1996 and afterwards
signed a cooperation agreement with the CFMU;
finally becoming a member of the Organisation on
1 January 2001. All these developments were
overseen by Mikko Talvitie, who became the third
President of the Provisional Council at its 12th ses-
sion in November 2001.
Mikko Talvitie will long be remembered in EURO-
CONTROL for his fairness and kindness as well as
his deep insight and far-reaching grasp of techni-
cal matters. A deep thinker and constructive ana-
lyst, he expressed himself with an economy of
words but with great clarity and foresight. He had
a well-deserved reputation for even-handedness
and integrity. As a Chairman, he was known for his
impartial judgement and broad-mindedness.
A man of wide culture and understanding, he knew
instinctively how to put people at ease. Determined
to bring people together, he formed close bonds
with the representatives on the Provisional Council
and other European bodies, doing a great deal
personally to make sure, that with open dialogue
and trust, the best decisions could be reached.
EUROCONTROL lost an exceptional colleague
and friend.
Víctor M. Aguado

Skyway 36 - Spring 2005 33

 visits &
Re port

Meeting our stakeholders

agreements
On 21 December,
the Director General
welcomed Mr Jacques Barrot,
Vice-President of the European
Commission with responsibility
for transport.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
On 19 January, the Director General
welcomed Mr Janez Bozic,
the Slovenian Minister for Transport.

..............
On 28 January, the Director General welcomed
Mr Sturla Bö varsson, the Icelandic Minister for
Transport, Tourism and Telecommunications.
A general overview of EUROCONTROL, the accession
of the European Community to EUROCONTROL and
the Single European Sky, the accession procedure
and air navigation route charges all formed
part of the discussions. Mr Bö varsson also visited
the Central Flow Management Unit.

.......................
On 31 January, the Director General welcomed a delegation
headed by Mr Vasil Pilo, recently appointed Director General of DGCA Albania.
The delegation was briefed on the main activities of the Agency, focussing on areas
of work within the Stakeholder Implementation Service including the Local
Convergence and Implementation Programme and ASATC.

34
 EPIC
the EUROCONTROL Publication
and Information Centre
External and Public Relations

“Bringing EUROCONTROL
closer to you”
On 23 February,
Jean-Robert Bauchet, Do you want to know which EUROCONTROL
Director CFMU, welcomed publications are available?
Mr John Anderson, Would you like to receive copies of any
Deputy Prime Minister and EUROCONTROL publications?
Minister for Regional Are you looking for information on
Services of Australia. the Organisation or its activities?
The Minister visited the
CFMU operations room.
All this and more
is available at EPIC!
............. Where to find us:
office 50.673, Brussels Headquarters
On 25 February, Ms Krassimira Martinova, the Bulgarian Tel. : + 32 2 729 47 15
Deputy Minister for Transport and Communications, Fax : + 32 2 729 91 98
and Mr Alexandros Galiatatos, the Romanian Secretary of State E-mail: epic@eurocontrol.int
for the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Tourism,
signed a Joint Statement in Sofia expressing their political
commitment to the creation of a Functional Airspace Block. ..........
The Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister, Nicolay Vassilev,
and Mr Víctor M. Aguado, Director General of EUROCONTROL,
witnessed the event. The Summer 2005 issue
of Skyway will focus on:
Airports

EUROCONTROL Website:
www.eurocontrol.int

Skyway 36 - Spring 2005 35

 © European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL)
©MEaurrcohp2e0a0n5Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL)
April 2003
This document is published by EUROCONTROL in the interests of exchange of information.
This document
It may is published
be copied in whole orby in
EUROCONTROL
part, providinginthat
the the
interests of exchange
copyright of disclaimer
notice and information.
are included.
It The
mayinformation
be copied incontained
whole orininthis
part,document
providingmay
thatnot
thebecopyright
modifiednotice and disclaimer are included.
The information
without contained
prior written in this document
permission may not be modified
from EUROCONTROL.
without prior written permission from EUROCONTROL.
EUROCONTROL makes no warranty,
EUROCONTROL
either implied makes no warranty,
or express, for the information contained in this document,
either
neitherimplied orassume
does it express,any
forlegal
the information contained in this
liability or responsibility for document,
the accuracy,
neither does it assume
completeness any legal
or usefulness liability
of this or responsibility for the accuracy,
information.
completeness or usefulness of this information.
For more information,
Focontact
r more EUROCONTROL
information, External and Public Relations,
contact
General EUROCONTROL External and Public Relations,
Secretariat Directorate
General
96, rueSecretariat
de la Fusée, Directorate
B-1130 Brussels, Belgium
96,Telrue
ephdeonela: Fusée,
+32 2 B-1130
729 34 20Brussels, Belgium
TeFlaexp:hone: +32 +322 2729
72990911198
Faex-m: ail: +32 2 729 91 98
epr@eurocontrol.int