Thales offers an upgraded product model for air traffic management with an upgrade of TopSky – ATC

20 Mar 2024

TopSky - ATC works together with key stakeholders, including air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and industry experts, to develop an upgraded system that ensures safe and seamless operations amidst growing air traffic flows.
The development of the TopSky – ATC upgrade lies in an innovative governance structure that fosters collaboration, shared decision-making, and ownership among all parties involved.
skeyes, the Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) in Belgium, shall join the initiative.

©Thales

Thales, a global leader in advanced technologies, announces the launch of the TopSky – ATC upgrade, that further addresses the challenges of an unpredictable world of air traffic management (ATM). With the aim of creating a more efficient and collaborative approach, Thales will also bring together the product users in an alliance of users through the Alliance One, that ensures safe and seamless operations amidst growing air traffic flows.

The development of the TopSky – ATC upgrade release lies in a different governance structure that fosters collaboration, shared decision-making, and ownership among all parties involved. By aligning the priorities and needs of its customer ANSPs and their own customers, Thales’ approach facilitates the development of an upgraded product that evolves regularly to meet the ever-changing demands of the industry.

TopSky – ATC provides numerous benefits to ANSPs and air traffic controllers (ATCs). Through its flexible subscription service, TopSky – ATC allows customers to shape updates according to their specific needs and financial constraints, while enabling ANSPs to collaborate with Thales for both initial development and ongoing technological advancements, ensuring financial efficiency.

By collectively defining critical needs, the new release empowers ANSPs to concentrate efforts on enhancing interoperability and efficiency, thereby accommodating higher air traffic levels and subsequently increasing revenue. The system’s common foundation facilitates efficient adaptation to emerging regulations, bolstering cyber security measures and streamlining individual system updates to ensure regulatory compliance and safety.

At the decision-making level, the roadmap for TopSky – ATC’s development, along with future evolutions, is shaped facilitating open, transparent, unrestricted, and complimentary knowledge exchange. with stakeholders through Alliance One, a user alliance. Within Alliance One, ANSPs and Thales jointly discuss industry CONOPS and critical needs,. Technological innovations are then driven by Thales’ Skylab Network, implemented globally to pool resources and foster collaboration between ANSPs and Thales.

Several clients have already expressed intention in joining this new governance model in 2024, the very first one is skeyes, Belgium’ ANSP. Source Thales