Gaining traction
Aireon was the frontrunner in space-based ADS-B but now has 21 ANSP customers in 40 countries. Some 50% of the world’s airspace relies on Aireon data for safe operations.
“There is still more to do,” says Thoma. “We were created by ANSPs for ANSPs, and we are a trusted partner. Space-based technology has arrived. ANSPs can see the benefits and they can also see the benefits of buying a service. Costs are controlled even as they offer their clients – the airlines – better performance.”
ADS-B enables advanced global surveillance by providing the controller with frequent and accurate data on location and other metrics.
Automatic: periodically transmits information with no pilot or operator input required.
Dependent: position and velocity vector are derived from the Global Positioning System (GPS).
Surveillance: a method of determining positions of aircraft, vehicles or other assets.
Broadcast: transmitted information available to anyone with the appropriate receiving equipment.
What is ADS-B?
The importance of working with CANSO
Don Thoma, CEO, Aireon:
“We were members of CANSO before we were a company. We were created by ANSPs, and CANSO lives the core values of the industry in terms of collaboration and safety.
We have been heavily involved and have seconded people to CANSO committees. We can help the industry get a global picture and that allows ANSPs to support each other through CANSO to improve safety and efficiency.
Sharing information is the key and the relationship with CANSO puts in the ground rules for the governance of data. It ensures transparency while ensuring the data is used in the right way. That fosters collaboration and will ensure ATM continues to provide an excellent service to the airlines.”
Data analytics
Even though it managed to continue growing, Aireon used the slowdown caused by the pandemic to quickly move into data analytics, an area it had already earmarked for development.
“Aviation is a data-rich industry,” says Thoma. “ANSPs, airports and airlines all create a wealth of data. And that data, analysed properly, can generate insights that improve safety and efficiency.”
Thoma says statistical analysis has now come of age thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning. Thanks to new technologies it is possible to not only analyse at pace but also to look at the data from multiple angles and then share it in real time.
Aireon’s advantage is its unique global picture of the industry that enables it to tease out vital trends. Every aircraft becomes a resource and Aireon has been able to build industry-critical tools around that fact.
“Traffic is growing fast again, especially in the busiest corridors,” says Thoma. “ANSPs must think how to bring in capacity and capability as well as improve safety and efficiency. A layer of space-based surveillance is helpful if you want to achieve all those things.”
Surviving the pandemic
The Safety Dashboard development marks another stage of development for Aireon, which had to fight through the pandemic having launched its space-based surveillance service early in 2019. The business model is based on the number of flights operating in a given airspace, so when aviation shut down, the company had to adapt quickly.
“We looked at the risks when we started the business, but we never imagined a global pandemic that would close international aviation almost completely,” says Thoma. “Our customers were fighting for survival, but we worked with them and managed to grow the company year over year even if it was slower than planned.”
Because Aireon had some ANSPs operational with its services and reporting excellent results, the company was able to maintain momentum. Existing clients were able to maintain services and control their costs. Ultimately, although the rate of adoption slowed, ANSPs saw the value of having space-based surveillance capability and Aireon was able to continue growing.
Moreover, the pandemic forced ANSPs to consider whether they needed to own their own infrastructure. Purchasing services was clearly a more cost-effective way forward, avoiding a lot of capital expenditure, such as primary radars and ADS-B towers, as well as ongoing maintenance costs.
Don Thoma, CEO, Aireon, says the idea was born out of work in the CANSO Safety Standing Committee. “We wanted to make use of the vast amounts of data we have in the industry to improve safety,” he says. “But that data wasn’t always in the same format, there was no agreement on how data should be used, and the algorithms needed to be refined.”
With considerable expertise in data analytics, Aireon set to work. The company also had the data set that could make a difference thanks to the 66 cross-linked Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Iridium satellites that allow Aireon to provide automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast (ADS-B) services.
Currently, three metrics have been agreed and were launched in a beta version in December 2023. These metrics cover:
Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) alerts – which are picked up by ADS-B services.
The risk of runway overrun – as the Aireon system can determine the distance to the end of the runway as an aircraft lands, an indicator of high energy landings.
Squawk codes – used to identify aircraft.
“Within the first week of using it on a trial basis, users found some issues that they could address,” says Thoma. “One saw a high incidence of TCAS alerts for a specific type of aircraft operation but did not see it with a similar operation in other part of their airspace. By comparing the two, they were able to identify ways to work with the operators to reduce the TCAS events. The Dashboard is intuitive, so the information pops out to you.”
The Safety Dashboard will have additional metrics, including time to conflict, oceanic time to conflict and high-speed rejected take-offs. Turbulence will be another area of focus with the aim of developing a predictive capability.
“There are a lot of interesting and valuable analytics we can do, and we want to keep making this tool even more valuable,” Thoma notes. “We have global data for all ADS-B equipped aircraft going back to 2019 when we launched our services, so we will be able to easily spot industry trends.”
Further out, Aireon is developing an Efficiency Dashboard to help refine airspace use. Imagine, for example, knowing which flights are deviating from the most optimal trajectory. This will allow the industry to measure the efficiency of their airspace. And a better understanding of flight efficiency will lead to the creation of an Environmental Dashboard. The goal is to allow flights to be given requested routes more often and ultimately user preferred routes will become the norm.
Safety is always the industry’s top priority and the forthcoming Safety Dashboard – a collaboration between Aireon and CANSO – will add yet another layer to efforts in this area.
Aireon was the frontrunner in space-based ADS-B but now has 21 ANSP customers in 40 countries. Some 50% of the world’s airspace relies on Aireon data for safe operations.
“There is still more to do,” says Thoma. “We were created by ANSPs for ANSPs, and we are a trusted partner. Space-based technology has arrived. ANSPs can see the benefits and they can also see the benefits of buying a service. Costs are controlled even as they offer their clients – the airlines – better performance.”
Gaining traction
ADS-B enables advanced global surveillance by providing the controller with frequent and accurate data on location and other metrics.
Automatic: periodically transmits information with no pilot or operator input required.
Dependent: position and velocity vector are derived from the Global Positioning System (GPS).
Surveillance: a method of determining positions of aircraft, vehicles or other assets.
Broadcast: transmitted information available to anyone with the appropriate receiving equipment.
What is ADS-B?
Even though it managed to continue growing, Aireon used the slowdown caused by the pandemic to quickly move into data analytics, an area it had already earmarked for development.
“Aviation is a data-rich industry,” says Thoma. “ANSPs, airports and airlines all create a wealth of data. And that data, analysed properly, can generate insights that improve safety and efficiency.”
Thoma says statistical analysis has now come of age thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning. Thanks to new technologies it is possible to not only analyse at pace but also to look at the data from multiple angles and then share it in real time.
Aireon’s advantage is its unique global picture of the industry that enables it to tease out vital trends. Every aircraft becomes a resource and Aireon has been able to build industry-critical tools around that fact.
“Traffic is growing fast again, especially in the busiest corridors,” says Thoma. “ANSPs must think how to bring in capacity and capability as well as improve safety and efficiency. A layer of space-based surveillance is helpful if you want to achieve all those things.”
Data analytics
The Safety Dashboard development marks another stage of development for Aireon, which had to fight through the pandemic having launched its space-based surveillance service early in 2019. The business model is based on the number of flights operating in a given airspace, so when aviation shut down, the company had to adapt quickly.
“We looked at the risks when we started the business, but we never imagined a global pandemic that would close international aviation almost completely,” says Thoma. “Our customers were fighting for survival, but we worked with them and managed to grow the company year over year even if it was slower than planned.”
Because Aireon had some ANSPs operational with its services and reporting excellent results, the company was able to maintain momentum. Existing clients were able to maintain services and control their costs. Ultimately, although the rate of adoption slowed, ANSPs saw the value of having space-based surveillance capability and Aireon was able to continue growing.
Moreover, the pandemic forced ANSPs to consider whether they needed to own their own infrastructure. Purchasing services was clearly a more cost-effective way forward, avoiding a lot of capital expenditure, such as primary radars and ADS-B towers, as well as ongoing maintenance costs.
Surviving the pandemic
Don Thoma, CEO, Aireon:
“We were members of CANSO before we were a company. We were created by ANSPs, and CANSO lives the core values of the industry in terms of collaboration and safety.
We have been heavily involved and have seconded people to CANSO committees. We can help the industry get a global picture and that allows ANSPs to support each other through CANSO to improve safety and efficiency.
Sharing information is the key and the relationship with CANSO puts in the ground rules for the governance of data. It ensures transparency while ensuring the data is used in the right way. That fosters collaboration and will ensure ATM continues to provide an excellent service to the airlines.”
The importance of working with CANSO
Don Thoma, CEO, Aireon, says the idea was born out of work in the CANSO Safety Standing Committee. “We wanted to make use of the vast amounts of data we have in the industry to improve safety,” he says. “But that data wasn’t always in the same format, there was no agreement on how data should be used, and the algorithms needed to be refined.”
With considerable expertise in data analytics, Aireon set to work. The company also had the data set that could make a difference thanks to the 66 cross-linked Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Iridium satellites that allow Aireon to provide automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast (ADS-B) services.
Currently, three metrics have been agreed and were launched in a beta version in December 2023. These metrics cover:
Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) alerts – which are picked up by ADS-B services.
The risk of runway overrun – as the Aireon system can determine the distance to the end of the runway as an aircraft lands, an indicator of high energy landings.
Squawk codes – used to identify aircraft.
“Within the first week of using it on a trial basis, users found some issues that they could address,” says Thoma. “One saw a high incidence of TCAS alerts for a specific type of aircraft operation but did not see it with a similar operation in other part of their airspace. By comparing the two, they were able to identify ways to work with the operators to reduce the TCAS events. The Dashboard is intuitive, so the information pops out to you.”
The Safety Dashboard will have additional metrics, including time to conflict, oceanic time to conflict and high-speed rejected take-offs. Turbulence will be another area of focus with the aim of developing a predictive capability.
“There are a lot of interesting and valuable analytics we can do, and we want to keep making this tool even more valuable,” Thoma notes. “We have global data for all ADS-B equipped aircraft going back to 2019 when we launched our services, so we will be able to easily spot industry trends.”
Further out, Aireon is developing an Efficiency Dashboard to help refine airspace use. Imagine, for example, knowing which flights are deviating from the most optimal trajectory. This will allow the industry to measure the efficiency of their airspace. And a better understanding of flight efficiency will lead to the creation of an Environmental Dashboard. The goal is to allow flights to be given requested routes more often and ultimately user preferred routes will become the norm.
Safety is always the industry’s top priority and the forthcoming Safety Dashboard – a collaboration between Aireon and CANSO – will add yet another layer to efforts in this area.