Bridging land and air

Description

Europe’s sustainable and smart mobility strategy aims to deliver connected and automated multimodal mobility, offering passengers seamless door-to-door journeys. To achieve this, airports must transform into transport hubs that integrate air travel with other transport modes such as rail, bus and autonomous vehicles. The Single European Sky ATM Research Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU) supports a more integrated and sustainable European transport network via increased digitalisation of services. Through improved airport operations, advanced traffic management and the integration of transportation service providers, travellers across Europe can enjoy robust and reliable passenger-centric journeys. Multimodal management. Through increased data sharing across transport services, transport managers can improve route planning, coordinating the arrival and departure of connecting services. Passengers benefit from single-ticket journeys across multiple providers. Innovative air mobility. New forms of transport, such as air taxis, offer passengers and airport managers increased flexibility and sustainability. SESAR is working to support the integration of these vehicles with existing operations. Airport collaboration. A holistic, integrated platform brings together airside and landside stakeholders – from long-term planners to real-time operators – to synchronise every aspect of airport activity and rapidly respond to changing conditions. By linking regional airports to the Network Manager’s system, traffic predictability can also be enhanced, capacity is balanced across the network, and arrivals and departures can be planned proactively. Ground control. Taxiing with engines running consumes significant fuel and generates emissions, whereas engine-off towing systems deploy tow-bots to eliminate much of this burn. AI-driven routing tools then optimise ground paths and resource allocation to cut idle time, further boosting efficiency and sustainability. AI for ATM. Air traffic management is a complex and demanding task. Transparent, reliable and trustworthy AI can shoulder the burden by detecting physical obstacles, transcribing pilot and tower communications, filtering data flows, and more.

A fleet of opportunities

Description

The Single European Sky ATM Research Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU) is a public-private partnership established to modernise air traffic management in Europe and deliver the Digital European Sky. Funding by Horizon Europe is matched by industry and Eurocontrol, for a total budget of almost €1.6 billion, with additional funds provided through the Connecting Europe Facility. Of 78 ongoing projects, the 12 highlighted in this brochure represent an investment of almost €90 million towards the goal of improved multimodal mobility. Beneficiaries include researchers working across more than 100 institutions, including universities, independent research centres, public bodies such as civil aviation authorities and meteorology centres, and industry partners such as airports, airlines and aerospace businesses. On the left side of the Sankey diagram, the projects are divided into three categories. HERON and PEACOCK are Digital Sky Demonstrators, budgeted at €40 370 827 and €5 013 405 respectively. Industrial research and fast-track projects include FastNET (€10 473 705), JARVIS (€15 762 360), SIGN-AIR (€5 089 725), and Travel Wise (€6 395 011). Exploratory research projects include ASTAIR (€1 121 105), MAIA (€1 000 000), MultiModX (€1 305 830), ORCI (€819 494), PRIAM (€1 074 875), TRUSTY (€999 968). On the right side of the diagram, the collective funding from these projects – amounting to €89 624 304 – is distributed among five recipient categories. Private and for-profit entities received 75% of the funds, €67 406 410. Research organisations received 15%, €13 717 423, Public bodies received €2 603 500, Higher or secondary education establishments received €4 680 304, and the remaining €1 216 667 went to recipients marked Other. Data was sourced from Horizon Europe and Connecting Europe Facility.