NAV CANADA Business Updates – Service Delivery

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At NAV CANADA, we are focused on building strong relationships with our customers. One of the ways we can assess how we are doing in the eyes of our stakeholders is through regular surveys. They provide our customers an opportunity to rate our performance and they can deepen our understanding of issues affecting customers and give us a better idea of what we must do to improve service.

Our most recent survey focused on seven priority areas: safety performance; service charge deferral mechanism; technology; service; environmental impact; collaboration; and preparedness for industry recovery.

We are proud of the survey results: an overall stakeholder satisfaction rate of 8.2 out of 10. Beyond that positive result, the survey is rich in information providing a pathway on how to continue to harmonize our efforts with the goals of our customers, as we collectively rebuild our industry after several of the most challenging years in our history.

Evolving air traffic management with TBO

Nothing defines the future of air traffic management like trajectory-based operations (TBO), which offers a major advancement over long-existing capabilities.

This is truly a game-changer. The concept will produce an entirely new paradigm, leveraging advances in technology that will enable an aircraft to fly to its destination with minimal intervention from air traffic services (ATS), based on a pre-determined, pre-agreed, four-dimensional trajectory (latitude, longitude, altitude, and time) — while being actively monitored by our Air Traffic Management system for compliance.

The resulting benefits are significant: fuel savings and less greenhouse gas emissions; fewer delays enroute; and increased predictability of arrival and departure times.

Our Company is now assessing a new Air Traffic Management system and Flight Data Processing (FDP) system that will accelerate our implementation of Trajectory-Based Operations.

Recently, we also announced an exciting new partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory. Delivering increased airspace capacity and predictability, this partnership is a building-block for TBO.

By combining our expertise, NAV CANADA and MIT will find new ways to manage air traffic at airports, terminals and enroute, no matter what the weather conditions. The result: safer, more predictable, and more efficient air travel.

Expanding the benefits of space-based ADS-B

As part of our airspace modernization initiative, NAV CANADA is expanding its use of revolutionary space-based automated dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B). NAV CANADA has commenced incremental provision of ATS surveillance services using space-based ADS-B within specific airspace below FL290 (flight level 290).

Beginning with Montreal FIR in December 2021, this initiative has now expanded to most FIRs, and represents the first time ADS-B data is being used below FL290 in the respective regions.

Throughout this expansion, we are evaluating performance, gathering air operator, air traffic controller and flight service specialist feedback, and addressing any potential technical issues prior to the first phase of Canada’s mandate going into effect for class A and B airspace. We are also working closely with Transport Canada and conducting outreach with stakeholders to support an effective implementation.

Implementing ADS-B across domestic airspace will pay significant dividends in safety and efficiency. Early in 2022, it was announced that Canada would be implementing an ADS-B Out Performance Requirements Mandate within Canadian domestic airspace in a phased approach. This will enable customer-preferred routes, speeds and flight levels — in addition to improved emergency response through better tracking and locating of aircraft in distress — all made possible with space-based surveillance.

However, getting to that stage also requires our customers to equip their fleets with the appropriate technology. Equipage rates are increasing and edging closer to 100 percent. But getting to that level has been a significant challenge given supply-chain issues related to the pandemic.

For that reason, the equipage deadlines have been extended to August 10, 2023 for Class A airspace, and May 16, 2024 for Class B airspace.

Digital facilities

The concept of digital facilities takes the provision of ATS at an airport (e.g. aerodrome advisory and airport control service) to new heights by leveraging advanced technology that avoids the limitations of traditional on-site personnel visual capabilities.

Following a successful trial, NAV CANADA obtained concurrence from Transport Canada to continue using digital facility technology at Saint John FSS for the provision of services to Fredericton International Airport, officially taking effect in October 2021.

Digital facilities offer an opportunity for a hub approach , whereby multiple airports or aerodromes are provided air traffic services from a centralized facility, leveraging the very best in augmented, high-resolution camera technology.

Digital facilities also enable greater flexibility in how NAV CANADA can deliver its ATS services. It’s a technology that is being embraced around the world, and Canada is certainly a perfect fit for such a technology, and that is why it’s a key component in our Strategic Direction.

A first for North America

For an illustration of how NAV CANADA has set its sights on airspace modernization, look no further than Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Pearson is the country’s busiest airport, and that is why we selected it for the first-ever implementation in North America of time-based separation.

Called Time-Based Separation (TBS) — Intelligent Approach, the technology is one of the most innovative tools now available to ANS providers. First launched globally at Heathrow airport in London, TBS is a new approach to air traffic management, and the benefits include reduced delays and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

We knew of TBS’s success at Heathrow, and that is why we decided to partner with NATS, our counterpart in the UK, to make it happen here in Canada.

TBS was successfully deployed at Pearson on May 28, 2022, after several years of development involving teams from both NAV CANADA and NATS.

It is an arrival-spacing application, configured with highly innovative software, that crunches wind data, and aircraft-type and other essential information, to produce a tactical tool on controllers’ displays. It’s now in use on all five of Pearson’s runways.

TBS is a technology that can optimize runway capacity, deliver better on-time performance, and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. We look forward to reporting on TBS’s success in the very near future.

TBS has significantly improved arrival rates at Heathrow during times of strong headwinds, and NAV CANADA is expecting similar results at Pearson.

Another way NAV CANADA is improving service and efficiency is through its efforts to create a commonality of ATS systems across all its sites. Such commonality makes training our front-line employees much easier by ensuring the systems they work with are the same across our air navigation system.

In fiscal 2022, we made progress on this common approach on two fronts. Electronic Flight Strips (EFS) are now live across all specialties in Canada following their implementation at North Bay specialty in the Toronto Area Control Centre, and the Gander High specialty at the Gander Area Control Centre.

As well, our integrated working position (IWP) involves the rollout of a common platform for our tower environment, encompassing consistent alerts and alarms and processing rules that enhance safety and efficiency. It has now been rolled out at nine towers, with deployments to continue until all towers have implemented IWP by fiscal 2024.

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