ATLAS: Unified European air traffic management study
A consortium of 25 European companies and research establishments has been contracted by the Commission of the European Communities to undertake a study developing the design, architecture and specifications for a single unified European air traffic management system. The ATLAS study is managed by the Commission in cooperation with Eurocontrol, and involves the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) and the Member States. It is part of a coordinated Commission/Eurocontrol study programme within which PHARE and EURET initiatives will focus on the short and medium term perspective (to harmonize and integrate air traffic control systems over the period leading up to the year 2000), and ATLAS the long term development of the unified system. These actions stem in part from a detailed analysis of the saturation of European air traffic control systems (42 control centres operating with 22 generally incompatible systems) set out in Commission communication COM(88) 557 of 16 January 1989.