Air navigation and traffic management covers the services and facilities that control aircraft in flight, including area and approach control centres, oceanic control, en-route radar and surveillance networks, navigation aids and aeronautical communication systems.
The Capability Development Index tracks the events that move a capability — operational use, technical breakthroughs, procurement decisions and the industrial base behind them — and places each on the record with the date it happened.
Recent developments cover the current period. Historical developments are the inflection points that produced Air Navigation & Traffic Management as it stands today.
Signed by 52 states, the Chicago Convention placed responsibility on each signatory state to furnish air navigation services within its territory. This established the template under which early air navigation service providers emerged as state-controlled monopolies, a structure that still governs en-route navigation provision.
From 1997 European state-run en-route navigation monopolies became subject to a performance review framework. This marked the beginning of supranational oversight of national service provision despite continued state ownership.
Regulations adopted in 2009 and again in 2013 subjected European air navigation service providers to performance targets and risk-sharing arrangements on route charges. These extended economic regulation over monopoly providers beyond the earlier review framework.
The programme sought to overcome the fragmentation of 37 European ANSPs operating 60 control centres, a fragmentation blamed for delays costing EUR 4 bn a year. Despite Functional Airspace Blocks transcending national borders and extensive research collaboration, the 2020 target was not met.
The Act provides the statutory basis for air traffic management in the UK. It also brings unmanned aircraft within the scope of national ATM legislation.