One of the most important conferences in aviation in Europe took place in Salzburg in December 2018
Every year the congress takes place in a different European country/ the Organizer chose Salzburg this year during the Austrian EU-Presidency/ Experts met at the University of Salzburg from December 3rd until December 7th/ Salzburg Airport was also one of the event locations
During this aviation conference, notable key figures from politics (EU-Commission, Eurocontrol, EASA and many more), industry and economy were welcomed.
“I congratulate the University of Salzburg on this wonderful and exclusive aviation event. It is a great honour for the university location Salzburg to be able to welcome more than 300 participants in the City of Mozart at the SESAR Aviation Congress. Innovation and environmental protection are essential and we gladly support any research in these areas”, says Christopher Losmann, Divisional Head Aviation & Sales.
What exactly is SESAR?
The exact name is “Single European Sky ATM Research Programme”. SESAR is a pan-European initiative, which was established by the European Commission and EUROCONTROL. SESAR aims at standardizing, harmonizing and synchronizing any services in the European air traffic management (ATM).The 2 billion-Euro program unites national and international organizations of the aviation business, airlines, aircraft operators and passengers as well as many other partners. The most essential performance objectives are a triplication of the aviation capacity, an increase in safety, an improvement of the environmental compatibility by 10% per flight as well as a decrease of costs for air traffic management by 50%.
In order to achieve these goals, many innovative ideas are needed. Research departments like Aerospace Research at the University of Salzburg are part of the SESAR-community.
Main Focus on Salzburg
In the Department of Computer Science, the research department Aerospace Research is dealing with different topics in aviation and space research. Over the past 15 years this research division has gained high-level competence and recognition for its work. A number of international research activities and industrial cooperation for well-known organizations and institutions were successfully carried out.
“Many scientific works are based on the intense use of the flight traffic simulator developed at the University of Salzburg called NAVSIM/USBGSim. Within Europe we are proud to say that we have a unique selling proposition here. We are addressing issues like reduction of CO2, delays, optimizing flight routes as well as complex procedures at an airport. We have a very broad spectrum of research and I am convinced that SESAR is the ideal platform for linking European experts in this field”, says Professor Carl-Herbert Rokitansky, host of the SESAR Innovation Days 2018 in Salzburg.
One of the core topics is the optimization of flight routes. How to avoid delays in air traffic, reduce fuel costs, avoid or at least significantly cut down CO2-emissions (especially during a storm scenario)?
Finally, there is a quite important topic area: forecasts in aviation. Simulations with a great detail accuracy allow to predict the expected air traffic in Europe (up to 2040) as well as the data traffic involved. This is the basis for any strategic decisions in digital communication (terrestrial and satellite-based) for the future of aviation.
