Crossing the threshold of massive transformation

The Law of Air Navigation Services

Air Navigation Services (ANS) in their modern form after the Second World War have been in constant evolution, which was characterised by relatively slow and calculated steps and historically shaped by political considerations. The pace of development has been dictated by the safety criticality of the interests involved that required caution not to introduce new risks by implementing insufficiently reflected changes. These successive incremental steps have nevertheless significantly changed the features of the industry over the past decades.

Four key elements driving transformation

The ANS industry now stands on the threshold of a massive transformation, driven by forces that differ significantly from those that have shaped the industry so far. The developments ahead will be determined by technology, which evolves independently from political decisions and at a much faster pace, with four key elements:

• Digital technologies will lead to the virtualisation of the ANS infrastructure and to the generalisation of operating models such as remote facilities that geographically decouple the infrastructure from the airspace sectors they serve.

• Unmanned aviation is irrevocably changing the features of aircraft operations, technological developments will also challenge the still largely taboo of automation of Air Traffic Management (ATM) processes, forcing the realisation that the limitations of automated solutions are no longer of technical but much more of social and psychological nature.

• The opportunities offered by technology will require a new understanding of the very definition of an ANS Provider, who will come to rely less on their own infrastructures and to increasingly use global infrastructures for communication, navigation, surveillance and the services offered by specialised aeronautical data suppliers.

• All such developments combined will introduce opportunities for competitive practices that were little used in the current environment.

Global infrastructure without perceptible borders in the sky

Whereas the emerging ANS environment looks strikingly different from the current landscape, past and future developments share a common requirement: the need for international cooperation. ANS are not an end in themselves. A key purpose of the Chicago Convention is to achieve a global aeronautical infrastructure that is cross-border and serves the international community. Among technology’s promises is the prospect of solutions ensuring States’ sovereign prerogatives while supporting cooperative and cross-border solutions necessary for achieving a global aeronautical infrastructure without perceptible borders in the sky.

Why I wrote the book?

I noticed a significant gap in aviation literature - while detailed legal analyses exist for most other aviation sectors, Air Navigation Services lacked comprehensive legal coverage. Additionally, I wanted to transform the extensive documentation collected throughout my 40-year career into a structured resource that I hope would benefit the aviation legal community.

About the author

Francis Schubert is the former Chief Corporate Office Skyguide and author of `The Law of Air Navigation Services`