European Commission celebrates winners of the first Single European Sky Awards
The European Commission has celebrated the five winners of the first edition of the Single European Sky (SES) Awards in Madrid, with the participation of a vast representation of manufacturers, air navigation service providers, airport operators, airspace users and all the other actors of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system worldwide. The SES Awards aim at rewarding projects that have contributed the most to the achievement of the Union's SES. The winners were selected among 22 applicants, which covered the whole spectrum of aviation actors, for a total of 65 private and public entities from 27 different countries. The SES awards provide the right recognition and visibility to projects that delivered concrete results on the SES goals in terms of performance, better and more efficient rules, and innovative solutions. It is a prize that recognises the concerted efforts of many organisations over many years, towards a common European goal. The completion of the SES is one of the priorities highlighted by the new Aviation Strategy for Europe, and will contribute to several Commission priorities: jobs and growth, internal market, energy union, and global competitiveness. The award ceremony took place at the annual World ATM Congress, in Madrid.
Here are the five winners and a full description of their projects:
Time Based Separation at Heathrow
The BOREALIS alliance: Delivering FRA across Northern Europe by 2021
Beside the five winning projects, the jury, composed by experts within and outside the European Commission, has given the following special mentions:
- System Wide Information Management (SWIM) -The ATM intranet, presented by the SESAR Joint Undertaking, EUROCONTROL and partners of the Joint Undertaking for developing an essential technological enabler for the SESAR concept of operations.
- Hungarian Free Route Airspace (HUFRA), presented by HungaroControl, and North European Free Route Airspace Programme (NEFRA), presented by AVINOR, EANS, FINAVIA, LGS, LFV and NAVIAIR for being "first movers" in implementing Free Route Airspace.
- SESAR Deployment Framework Partnership, presented by the SESAR Deployment Manager, for establishing the first partnership for deploying SESAR Solutions.
- Development and Implementation of Joint Service Provision Area Initiative, presented by the civil aviation authorities of Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Hungary, for its contribution to the pan-European dimension of the Single European Sky.
- Military Implementation of SESAR, presented by the European Defence Agency, for its essential contribution to promoting civil-military cooperation.
- Formation of A4 Consortium of Airlines, presented by International Airlines Group, Lufthansa Group, Air France-KLM, EasyJet, for playing an essential role in enhancing airspace users’ participation in the SESAR project.