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Forecasts released for Zpryme Airline illustrate that the air traffic management systems (ATM) market is expected to grow from $5.9 billion in 2012 to $8.1 billion by 2020. In addition, the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) latest industry traffic forecast shows that airlines expect to fly 3.6 billion passengers in 2016 approximately 800 million more than the 2.8 billion passengers carried by airlines in 2011.

With substantial air traffic expansion and aggressive ATM overhauls in developing countries Latin America and Middle East as well as the majority of airlines are aiming to continue to reduce costs.

Like high growth markets such as United States and United Kingdom that lead in international travel, Canada, which has implemented and developed next generation ATM technology since 1996, has seen improvements in employee and air traffic efficiencies. It has increased Canadian air space capacity to easily allow for increased air traffic. Canada is a solid example of the positive impacts ATM has.

This week it was reported that non-profit initiative “Care by Air” is promoting the concept that empty business aviation flights could be used for humanitarian endeavours.

Care by Air says that 80% of the UN humanitarian aid budget goes to the cost of logistics. Given that, there is an opportunity for the aviation industry to give back to society simply by offering unused capacity at cost price for humanitarian causes.

Care by Air says that flights worldwide are 34% empty – equal to 1.5 million tonnes of empty cargo space. The business aviation community are asked if they could use some of this empty capacity for humanitarian causes at cost price. Just a.0003% take up could provide food  for 5 million people

“MEBA is the perfect platform to interact with business aviation companies and promote humanitarian efforts – to expose just how much we can work together not just in terms of cargo space, but by providing fuel, haulage, warehousing and other costs,” says Care by Air.

The Al Maktoum International Airport is hosting the much acclaimed MEBA event, where ARINC Direct will be exhibiting this month.

ARINC Direct will be showcasing its ConnectOnboard Communications System at MEBA. This latest product in a host of flight support services for business aviation delivers complete ACARS messaging, utilizing an iPad application as the user interface, high quality voice using an iPhone or Android device, and managed email.

“This is fertile ground for ARINC and we are delighted to be expanding our portfolio of services and resources in readiness for the growth,” said James Hardie. ”Our ability to support the widest cross-section of customers with continually evolving products and innovations is an advantage that is the envy of our competitors.”

For more details on the passenger communications, flight support or flight deck communications services offered by ARINC Direct please visit the ARINC Direct Business Flight Planning site.

This week we heard that ARINC will be providing IT maintenance and support for Japan’s AVICOM Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS).

AVICOM is Japan’s service provider for aviation communications, performing the same role as the FAA in the USA. Since the 1990’s AVICOM has used ACARS, and has selected ARINC to provide a broader service and maintenance solution that meets increasingly demanding cost expectations. ARINC will provide dedicated on-site support at AVICOM’s Network Operating Center, in addition to remote support in locations across Japan. The complete ARINC managed solution comprises asset management, incident management, preventive maintenance and reporting.

“This is the first time we’ve been contracted to support an ACARS system and provide maintenance for back-end network infrastructure in this way,” said Jim L. Martin, Managing Director, ARINC Asia Pacific. “This engagement highlights the flexibility of our IT support capabilities to develop solutions for a variety of technical environments,” Martin continued.

For more information on ARINC’s services airport management please visit the AviNet Airport site. For specific information on ACARSs and the transmission of Type B Messages please visit the Type B Messaging site.

The government denies that the IPS is a faulty instrument for measuring its progress on migration for the UK. Yet there does not seem to be an accurate system for counting people in and out of the country and government has promised to reduce net migration (the difference between those entering and leaving the country) to “tens of thousands” by 2015.

Border Management

The e-borders scheme meant to do this activity, and is still a work in progress. Despite government assurances, according to experts when it comes to measuring how many people are leaving the country is unclear and the increasingly rigid process it is to get a visa for the UK, it seems there is no way of knowing if someone is still in the country when it expires. E-borders replaced the old paper-based embarkation system, scrapped in the 1990s.

IPS emigration estimates are based on interviews with just 2,000 people and there is currently no alternative source of data to measure them against. Instead the government relies on the answers given by a sample of travellers who agree to be stopped and questioned by a team of social survey interviewers at Heathrow and other main air, sea and rail points of entry to the UK.

E-borders which was primarily meant to improve security, when combined with a biometric identity card scheme, began collecting details of passenger and crews for inbound flights from outside the EU at nine airports in March. The plan now is to extend it to ports and railway stations by 2014 and to passengers from within the EU by 2015. But that will depend on persuading all EU countries to share passenger and crew list information – quite a number of them regard this as illegal under European free movement laws.

Electronic border schemes can be adopted by both airlines and airports. One product by ARINC, Electronic Borders, is designed to adapt to the changes in operational process and support new technology, enabling Border Control agencies to flex with changing demands and capabilities.

Today it is not enough to simply secure borders from unauthorised entry by known undesirables. Now it is necessary to manage the stay of travellers, from entry through to exit, to know who has been in the country and when they left.

The ARINC Border Management System delivers a full stay management capability, screening all travellers before they travel, and managing visitors throughout their stay. For more information please visit the ARINC Electronic Borders website.

The Atlanta-based inflight catering company, Tastefully Yours, has appointed Heather Hibbin as a full time nutritionist. Heather who holds a PPL, will support and develop new menus for the aviation client based clients and starts with immediate effect. She will complement the existing 15 strong catering team based at the headquarters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a first for aviation catering, Tastefully Yours, has created this new position in response to a growing demand from executive passengers who are becoming increasingly aware of the properties of their inflight diet. Menus will be created that will support crew activity to ensure they can perform at optimum levels during flights so reducing the risk of fatigue and potential risk.

Paula Kraft, president of Tastefully Yours said, “A dietician working in aviation understands the differences a person’s body encounters at altitude and can therefore provide specifically chosen menus that will support not only the passengers comfort but also support crew’s operating capability,” she continued, “A well fed crew is less likely to become sick so down time for owners and operator is also reduced,” Kraft continues.

The nutritionist appointment is part of a wider overall commitment to the aviation catering Safety Management System developed to improve the standards of service within this particular sector. It was presented to the NBAA Flight Attendants Committee at their Chicago Symposium held in June 2012.

Ms Hibbin who joins Tastefully Yours from Cobb & Douglas Public Health Nutrition Services. will be responsible for creating lighter versions of existing menus, with qualified nutritional information, ingredients and creating menus for special dietary requests . She stated, “Working with Tastefully Yours presents a whole new set of challenges for me and it is exciting to think that the nutrition knowledge I have can enhance the experience of crew and passengers alike. Together with Paula’s aviation awareness I hope we can generate an even more valuable service for our executive aviation client base,”.

To attract more business aviation Gloucestershire airport has extended its runway, said the airport’s head of operations, Darren Lewington,”Although only 12m of additional tarmac has been laid, the removal of obstacles nearby and the creation of an overrun means the landing distances available for aircraft have increased by up to 150m,” he added “The extra runway distances make a huge difference to the operators of the larger aircraft that currently use the airport and will generate additional business for us,”

Mr Lewington also said, “Business aviation movements make up around 5% of the take-off and landings, but they generate 30% of our revenue.” A large volume of activity is from general aviation aircraft, with approximately 70,000 actions annually. “With the closure of Filton airport, near Bristol, at the end of the year, there is already additional demand from corporate aircraft flying to the southwest of England. We are ideally placed to serve high net worth individuals in this region, as well as the Birmingham and Oxford catchment,” he adds.

Business aviation remains significant for airports across the country but increasingly as costs rise for operators they are looking for new, cost effective ways of running their businesses. Flight operations can be a significant outlay, and whilst operators cannot compromise on safety there are now solutions to make improve efficiency of all aspects of operations. ARINC Direct for example offer complete solutions for business aviation including all aircraft communications, flight support and planning services and even ancillary services such as aircraft broadband. For further information please visit the ARINC Direct website.

I wanted to take a look at a solution for aviation communications; AviNet Type B messaging from ARINC as it delivers an unbeatable combination of high value and low cost for both commercial and business aviation. GLOBALink ACARS®, passenger reservations, aviation weather data and flight planning are a few message types that can transmitted, and ARINC offers a free messaging audit.

For over 50 years ARINC has operated an IATA Type B and Type A message switching service and over 700 companies depend on their network. They comply with all IATA Type B and Type A standards as well as support IATA messaging between customers and trading partners in the aviation industry. By using AviNet Type B Messaging companies can effectively communicate and share vital information with business partners, operators, and applications globally.

Type B Customers are able to communicate with entities on other networks, including FAA NADIN I and II, AFTN, and SITA. ARINC supports ATA/IATA type B message, formats various message reassurance procedures such as the BATAP and IBM MQ Series. AviNet can also manage non-IATA messages in addition to standard ATA/IATA formats.

Type B Messaging can seem to be complex and confusing, but ARINC work closely with the client to provide a consultation on the current messaging environment and to find an appropriate Type B Messaging pricing scheme. They maintain that they typically save customers over 30% on their existing Type B Messaging costs.

To find out more: typebmessaging-avinet.com

The large number of applications submitted exceeding ICANN’s original projections can be explained, with the new gTLD program having a profound impact on the private sector’s increasing dominance over Internet information resources and ownership of critical registry technical infrastructure assets. It is projected only the private sector will take full advantage of the commercial possibilities offered by the introduction of new gTLDs creating new innovations.

The successful introduction of new gTLDs will also create new challenges of security for the private sector. Creation of Internet additional domains would expose to different security risks on the Internet. Applicants are expected to describe in details the security policies and procedures of the proposed registry, and to go to some considerable depth in explaining how denial of service attacks would be mitigated, and describe their computer and network incident response policies, plans, and processes; the types of defences that will be deployed against threats, etc. What ICANN considers as a robust response to the Security Question must show “evidence of highly developed and detailed security capabilities” amongst other requirements, coupled with an independent assessment report that demonstrates effective security controls as proof of conformance to the ISO27001 Certification Standard.

Cyber-security threats have now emerged as the defining security challenges of the global Internet economy. National Security operatives are now seized by the issue of Cyber-security. They are actually now more worried and concerned about security threats on computers and information resources than a physical terrorist attack that can be easily detected and disrupted in an airport. Sharing advance passenger information on airline passengers for example between the United States and European countries will make it more difficult for a terrorist to board an airline flying between Europe the USA. Moreover, increased and more efficient traditional spying has helped security and anti-terrorism agencies to more accurately identify and prevent terrorists from carrying out their wicked plans, but the identity of cyber-warriors remain very much anonymous, and pinpointing their exact geographical location remains a major technical challenge.

Advance Passenger Information (API), already obligatory in the USA and across all EU member states, is increasingly required by governments around the world.  Combined with Passenger Name Records (PNR), this information must be sent by the airlines to the destination country’s border security department to facilitate the passenger screening that is crucial for effective border management.

For more information on API and its transmission please visit this site from ARINC.

The 2012 business aviation industry has showed a weak performance. One small improvement was with active turbine corporate aircraft fleet which climbed to more than 29,000 compared to 28,300 in 2011, while the jet fleet has risen by a small 565 to 17,974.

One of the best areas to make improvements is the Asia-Pacific countries, The FlightGlobal Ascend online database shows that this fleet has risen by nearly 150 aircraft to 834 jests and 625 turboprops. The Chinese market shows an impressive fleet gain but China has not turned into the cash cow that was expected by some analysts. It has been suggested by Foley that China has provided “a conveniently timed mini-rescue”, for the aircraft industry. It has been good while it lasted but jet manufactures are now concentrating on preserving orders rather than being in sales mode.

Rise and Fall of the Business Aircraft Industry 2012

According to Aboulafia a full recovery will only occur when the world’s economies finally stabilize at some time in the future and the jet fleet replacement cycle in the USA is in full swing. USA has the largest business aircraft fleet but the market is fragile.

In Europe the last 12 months have been disastrous with the number of business jet and turboprop fleet reducing by 30 aircraft. This is largely caused by the global recession that has continued to grip this region. Not surprisingly the worst hit countries in Europe are Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.