Avinor ANS, the air navigation service provider (ANSP) of Norway, this month, began using Aireon’s market-leading, space-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) data to support air traffic operations across the entire Bodø Oceanic Flight Information Region (OFIR).
In April 2022, Avinor ANS started using Aireon ADS-B data for the Bodø OFIR in oceanic environments, below FL 100, with the primary intention of serving the robust helicopter operations and search and rescue missions in the Barents Sea. Since then, Avinor ANS reported the Aireon space-based ADS-B helped improve safety and drive operational efficiencies in the region, including the ability to reduce separation for helicopters. In addition, Avinor concluded that space-based ADS-B performed as well as their ground-based systems over terrestrial airspace.
“We were extremely pleased with the reliability and operational performance of the data in the lower-level airspace,” said Tormod Rangnes, Director En-Route Services, Avinor ANS. “Expanded use of the Aireon data will allow Avinor ANS to achieve new levels of safety and operational efficiencies in 2023 and beyond.”
Avinor ANS will now use the Aireon data for high-level oceanic airspace within the Bodø OFIR for enhanced ATC awareness and traffic visibility. The ANSP will start to reduce separation for the corridor to the Svalbard Islands, with the ultimately goal of using Aireon data to reduce separation minima for the entire Bodø OFIR.
Avinor is a wholly owned, state limited company under the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications and is responsible for 43 state-owned airports and 3 control centres, and travel support for approximately 50 million passengers annually. The Bodo OFIR spans the Norwegian Basin and Barents Sea.
“Avinor ANS has been a leader in their innovative use of Aireon data as the first customer to use our data for helicopter operations. Since 2021, space-based ADS-B has more than proven its value in these operational missions,” said Don Thoma, Aireon CEO. “With the expanded use of ADS-B data, they are bringing that same innovation to their customers in high-level oceanic operations.”
