With 400 participants attending the SESAR Forum, the third edition of this yearly conference on the SESAR programme has proven extremely successful. ATM experts from around the world gathered at ATC Global in Amsterdam to know more about the progress made so far and an outlook to what is in the pipeline for 2012.

Patrick Ky opened the conference, setting the scene with his ‘Climbing higher’ key note speech. He reported on the main highlights of 2011 with amongst others the delivery of initial results of the SESAR programme in the framework of the SESAR Release process and the extension of the SESAR family by 25 new associate partners including global players like Boeing and Thales Australia but also SMEs and universities. He insisted that the focus of all programme members and partners are to deliver more operational results in 2012; further key milestones of the year are the update of the European ATM Master Plan and the 12th ICAO Air Navigation Conference including SESAR’s support of ICAO’s block upgrade system.

Matthew Baldwin, Director of the European Commission’s Air Transport Directorate and David McMillan, Director General at Eurocontrol then concentrated in their speeches on the deployment of SESAR and the update of the ATM Master Plan. Matthew Baldwin reconfirmed that SESAR represented a critical part of the future transport system and concluded that research and development in this area will not come to an end after 2016. Also David McMillan showed in his speech satisfaction about the progress made by the multidisciplinary SESAR family but highlighted the imperative need of the global aviation community for interoperable ATM systems.

The three following presentations focused on concrete results from the SESAR programme. Florian Guillermet, Deputy Executive Director Operations & Programme, gave an outline of first outcomes from Release 1 and an overview of the 2012 Release. Florian made clear that with the release approach, the SESAR programme left the laboratories and entered operational reality. Philippe Pellerin, Airbus test pilot, then gave the cockpit view of the world’s first I-4D flight which took place on 10 February 2012. Alain Siebert, Chief Economics and Environment, highlighted the environmental benefits of some 9,000 trial flights carried out in the framework of AIRE and stressed that the main success of the transatlantic project was the high transition rate from trial to day-to-day operations of green procedures.

Going from the present to future milestones, Denis Koehl, Senior Advisor for Military Affairs presented the key features of the future European ATM Master Plan and Frank de Winne, ESA Astronaut and Chairman of the SESAR Scientific Committee, reported on longer-term research covered within the SESAR programme.

The three final presentations involved some of the main stakeholders of the SESAR community: military, airports and ATM personnel. Claude-France Arnould, Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency, confirmed that the military community developed a constructive approach and a more proactive role towards SESAR. Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI Europe, in his presentation explained that SESAR was seen as an enabler for better operating conditions for the benefit of airlines and passengers by the airport community. Finally, Marc Baumgartner, SESAR coordinator for IFACTA, reported on the important work of the international validation team put in place by SESAR. This team consists of independent staff association experts participating in SESAR validation exercises. Marc Baumgartner said that with this initiative, the SESAR JU was breaking new ground and that it represented an unique opportunity for staff to be involved in Europe’s ambitious ATM modernisation programme.

All presentations held at the SESAR Forum at ATC Global 2012 are available on the SESAR website.