At a kick-off meeting in Copenhagen, COOPANS SESAR experts came together to launch the work and define the next steps.

In ATC-TBO 2, COOPANS ANSPs will act as ground-operational validators, supporting the development and testing of seamless air-ground trajectory exchange. The objective is to improve the synchronisation between aircraft flight management systems and ground ATC through advanced datalink communication. This is expected to support more efficient trajectories, reduce controller workload and make better use of available airspace capacity.

Within HAVEN, COOPANS will focus on advanced automation and the potential use of artificial intelligence in air traffic control. Experienced air traffic controllers and ATM experts will investigate concepts such as a possible digital assistant for ATCOs, designed to automate selected support-tasks while keeping the human controller firmly at the centre of safety-critical decision-making.

For COOPANS, participation in both projects is not only about exploring new technologies. A key priority will be to rigorously test and validate new concepts in an operational context and to build a solid understanding of how they could safely and effectively contribute to the future European ATM system.

The Copenhagen meeting marked the start of this work, with COOPANS looking forward to sharing insights and lessons learned as the projects progress.

The ATC-TBO 2 and HAVEN projects are co-funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe programme and supported by the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking.

The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of COOPANS and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.