That Was The Week That Was 13-17 February 2023
In Airspace, Size Really Does Matter
Nobody gets into air traffic control for the glamour. Normally, ANSPs are the Red Cross of aviation, getting on with the job without fanfare or expectation of credit. Airlines and airports have marketing departments projecting their image, telling the world just how very marvellous they are. ANSPs just do what they have to do, resolving conflicts and keeping things running.
Most aviation events, things like trade association AGMs, conferences and so on, are lucky to have an ATM speaker at all. Seldom, unless it is to complain about charges and delays, is ATM on the agenda. That is why the ANSP community organises its own conferences. And then things get really interesting. This usually quiet-mannered, own-business-minding community takes the gloves off. They come out fighting – themselves.
History is littered with the corpses of ATM conferences, each one supplanted, after much blood and guts have been spent, by a bigger and better (if they have to say so themselves) event in another part of the world. The supplanted event tries to limp on, at least for a year. From Maastricht to Amsterdam, to Washington DC, to Madrid and now to Geneva, a world tour of bitter, bloody fighting over ATM conferences, each step motivated by the possibility of sharing the spoils. There is money in ATM conferences, it just never seems to make its way to the ANSPs. And when the usually quiet and meek ATM community gets to fighting, it is bitter. There is nothing more horrid than a civil war.
The next ATM conference, Airspace World, is being organised by CANSO in Geneva, early next month. So right on cue, we are seeing some serious blue on blue attacks. The most recent one, via that well known fight cage venue LinkedIn, is typical. Airspace World is set to exceed World ATM Congress we are told. My dad is bigger than your dad. Airspace World, organised by CANSO is likely to be ‘bigger’ than World ATM Congress, previously organised by, er… CANSO along with ATCA, the US-based member organisation. ATCA is going it alone in Madrid later this year, organising Airspace Integration with a logo and location that is trying to tell you that it is business as usual… No doubt as September draws closer we will again be told about sizing.
The big unanswered question in all of this is who measures these things, so that size comparisons can be made? Bigger in what sense? Is there a standard ATM Conference under a bell jar in Paris that we can use as a point of reference? We can only hope.
Tags: air traffic control, ansp, ATCA, canso