R&D&i - Navegacion Aerea - Aena.es - Spanish airports and airspace

Aerial nav.

R&D&I Projects

Aena uses advanced technology to optimise the capacity of the air navigation service.

The major and continuous growth in air traffic in recent years in Spain has led Aena to intensify its role in a range of Research, Development and Innovation projects (R&D&I), in order to be able to meet this increase in demand for air traffic services smoothly and safely. Consequently, the capacity of the air navigation system can be increased through the implementation of new technologies that are capable of optimising the quality of the services provided to Aena's clients.

List of Research & Development projects

SACTA: Technological development and the automation of the air navigation system have led to the creation of several excellent systems of air traffic control. One of these is the Automated System of Air Traffic Control (SACTA).
Satellite Navigation: Navigation satellite systems have been a definite revolution for our civilisation in navigation, positioning, surveying, and the development of specific applications in a wide variety of fields.
Navigation and Surveillance: The action of identifying and tracking an aircraft throughout its flight for keeping the air traffic safety is known as the surveillance system. Currently, this tracking is carried out using radar (primary and secondary).
SNA Development: The role of the CNS/ATM Simulation Division is to provide useful and quantitative information about the anticipated benefits (in terms of capacity, safety, efficiency, environmental impact, etc.) from investments, changes in the system's features, improvement proposals, etc. The Division is part of the CNS / ATM Systems and services the organisation's units as well as facilitating decision-making processes, offering analysis and solutions related to the Air Navigation System.
Europe EAD: In line with the current European Union strategy, aimed at creating a single common European airspace, the member states of Eurocontrol decided to establish a centralised European AIS Database to provide customers with permanent, dynamic, coherent and validated air traffic data. This gave rise to the European AIS Database (EAD) project.
ATM Capacity: The term capacity in air traffic management (ATM) indicates the maximum number of aircraft movements / operations entering a sector, overflying a point or departing from an aerodrome or a set of aerodromes per hour.