ASECNA to explore space surveillance for remote air traffic management

African air navigation organisation ASECNA is to co-operate with traffic management venture Aireon to explore space-based surveillance for remote regions, reports Flightglobal.
Time Aerospace thumbnail

ASECNA provides air traffic control across 17 states on the African continent.
It is examining the options for monitoring flights over areas in Niger, Chad and Congo as well as oceanic airspace handled by Senegal and Madagascar.
Aireon is developing a space-based automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) concept which will become operational in 2017.
“We’re particularly interested in surveillance coverage over remote routes,” said ASECNA director general Amadou Ousmane Guitteye.
ASECNA was caught in the fallout over the loss of Air France flight AF447 in 2009. The Airbus A330 was being transferred between Brazilian and Senegalese oceanic control when it disappeared but neither side immediately realised that the aircraft was missing, leading to a dispute over responsibility for the flight.
Guitteye says enhanced surveillance will provide both safety and cost-reduction benefits. ASECNA has signed a memorandum of agreement with Aireon under which the two sides will look at capabilities and requirements.
Aireon’s plan is to provide comprehensive global coverage of aircraft positions by relaying data via satellite to ground controllers.