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Experience

Chris Odam, NATS Supply Chain Director: “We have a strong commercial bond with Indra, which is highly valued by both organizations.”
Chris Odam also points out that “the variety of activities and the strong ties that exist between the key personnel of our organizations guarantee the success of this collaboration.”
 

David McMillan, General Manager of EUROCONTROL: “Our ability to address the challenges faced by the air traffic industry is closely tied to the implementation of new technologies, which should be harmonized and fully interoperable. The new Flight Data Processing System in Maastricht provides an excellent technology base for effective trans-national air navigation services, a key element in the Single European Sky,” and, “will contribute towards meeting the objectives in order to create an air traffic management system that is less fragmented and more results-oriented, in line with the long-term objectives of SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research), the European infrastructure modernization plan.”

Awards

Indra awarded at ATC Global by Jane's Airport magazine

The award has been granted in recognition of the successful start-up of the New Flight Data Processing System (FDPS) developed by Indra

Indra received the "Future Systems Award" granted by an international jury presided by the prestigious Jane's Airport magazine. The awards ceremony took place during the ATC Global Fair in Amsterdam, March 17-19, 2009.

The award was given in recognition of the successful start-up, on December 12, 2008, of the New FDPS (Flight Data Processing System) developed by Indra for the Maastricht air traffic control center. This center is directly managed by Eurocontrol, and handles the Upper Area Control (UAC) of Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and north-east Germany.

The award recognizes the "pioneer" and "system of the future" character of the New FDPS, which is the first (and so far only) of the new generation that has been put into operation in the world.

This new generation of FDPS is "trajectory-based" compared to the traditional "route-based" systems. The "trajectory-based" term indicates a new paradigm of precision in the flight data information that the system contains, not only because of the way it is presented to the controller, but also because of its use by new tools (conflict detection, trajectory monitoring, flow harmonization, etc.), which are extremely dependent on precise trajectory information.

The system complies with the eFDP (European Flight Data Processing) requirements, and in addition to the "trajectory-based" feature, includes modern flight data management functionalities such as automatic conflict detection, trajectory monitoring, military traffic management, automatic coordination with collateral centers, etc.

The "pioneer" aspect of the new system confirms Indra's vanguard positioning in the air traffic management sector.
Additionally, aside from the technologically vanguard aspect, it is worth mentioning the importance of its on-time and within budget completion, and with a greater reach than the original plan, as confirmed by Eurocontrol.
 

Indra, NATS supplier Excellence Award

NATS, the Air Traffic Control service provider in the United Kingdom, has given Indra an award for its excellence during 2008

Each year, among its key suppliers, NATS awards a recognition (Supplier Performance Award) to the company that has best met its expectations from a commercial, delivery, management system, technology, and abilities perspective.

The distinction recognizes the recent advances made in the iTEC (Interoperability Through European Collaboration) programme, for which Indra is a technological partner and works towards making the air traffic management systems of the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain homogeneous and interoperable. With this, progress is also made in the application of the requirements marked by the EU for the construction of a Single European Sky.

NATS highlighted the deadlines and objectives that were met in the delivery of iMAS, a connectivity or middleware system developed specifically by Indra for air traffic management systems (ATM). This milestone is the first in the implementation of the future flight data processing system (iTEC-eFDPS) that Indra is working on.

At the awards ceremony, which took place this past February at NATS headquarters (Corporate & Technical Centre), in Whiteley, it was also noted the effort made by Indra in the last 12 months in order to close the alliance with NATS and Lockheed Martin for TiNA (The iTEC NERC Adaptor), a project that has been established in order to guarantee that the current British air traffic management system, called NERC, is successfully adapted to the future iTEC system.

Chris Odam, Director of the NATS Supply Chain, highlighted his "strong interest in developing the relation with Indra, considering it a dynamic and client-oriented company that shares our enthusiasm for leading the transformation of the Air Traffic sector. Not only do we trust that it will fulfil its commitments, but for us, this is a starting point for exploring other possibilities for collaboration."

Mike Stoller, NATS Programmes Director, assured that "the success of the iTEC implementation is critical for NATS, and also depends on our collaboration with three leading European air navigation suppliers, and we have confided in Indra's abilities to achieve this."

On his behalf, Rafael Gallego assured that this award "recognizes the commitment made with NATS as a stable, long-term partner. I believe that working together will serve to distinguish ourselves within the ATM sector, expand our influence, and take advantage of new opportunities."