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The first iTEC Symposium took place at the DFS branch in Munich on 16 and 17 April. Around 70 international guests participated.

To celebrate the successful launch of iCAS for upper airspace and ring in the next implementation step, DFS had invited iTEC partners, representatives of the system provider Indra as well as interested parties from other European air navigation services organisations to the its branch in Munich.

The symposium reviewed the past and looked into the future. It not only addressed operational and technical challenges that had to be overcome when iCAS was being implemented in Karlsruhe, it also focused on current developments associated with the upcoming implementation phases for lower airspace. The Munich control centre served as an example and was the focus of attention to demonstrate to participants how a live system changeover could be performed in running operations.

“With iCAS, DFS has created the conditions needed for the even more flexible control of air traffic in upper and lower airspace. The new functionalities that iCAS delivers are particularly pertinent for lower airspace as they will allow airspace users to fly to their destinations independently of fixed routes in the future. The implementation of iCAS scheduled for Munich in 2021 is an important milestone towards the future system architecture of DFS and its European partners,” explained Robert Schickling, DFS Managing Director Operations.

The emphasis of the second day of the symposium was on the iTEC alliance. DFS relies on close international cooperation for the implementation of such a cutting-edge air traffic management (ATM) system. The Dutch air navigation service provider LVNL is a cooperation partner of the DFS iTEC System Group, which the air navigation service providers ORO NAVIGACIJA (Lithuania) and PANSA (Poland) joined in 2017 as new members of the alliance. Along with NATS (UK), AVINOR (Norway) and ENAIRE (Spain) as well with Indra as the system provider, iTEC has become Europe’s largest ATM system collaboration. “International collaboration in iTEC will considerably enhance the operational performance and cost-efficiency of DFS in the long term,” said Andreas Pötzsch, Director of the DFS Control Centre division.

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iTEC (interoperability Through European Collaboration) is a collaborative industrial and service project that has successfully developed a common flight data processing and display system platform fulfilling the requirements of the European ATM Master Plan. iTEC solutions enable 4D operations and feature conflict detection, flight plan monitoring, conformance and adaptable user interfaces. The iTEC founding members and their partners (including PANSA and ORO NAVIGACIJA) control around seven million flights a year.