11 March 2020 - SITA and Boeing's ecoDemonstrator are working together for accelerating innovation in air traffic control (ATC) communications. This program not only aims at enhancing sustainability but also at solving air transport industry challenges for airlines as well as passengers.
NASA and Etihad will also play a major role to aid this program. This program was implemented onboard a Boeing 777 recently and tested a total of 50 different projects. This program has an important role to play in today's ground-to-air connectivity landscape and the increasing pressure on traditional communications protocols.
Mike Sinnett, Vice President of Product Strategy and Future Airplane Development at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said: "It's exciting to welcome SITA onboard our debut 777 ecoDemonstrator to address some of the challenges facing airline operations and air traffic control. This is a key area in assessing the technologies that will make our skies safer and more efficient, for Boeing, and the wider industry."
SITA's involvement in the program highlights the strength of its SITA FOR AIRCRAFT portfolio, which delivers the promise of the connected aircraft by providing services that enable communication between aircraft, ground systems, ATC and other operators.
Dominique El Bez, Vice President Product and Strategy, SITA FOR AIRCRAFT, said "Reinforcing flight safety and optimization remain priorities for airlines and air traffic managers. That's why SITA is working to build and optimize a multilink communications ecosystem. By working with the Boeing ecoDemonstrator to test these solutions faster and with greater fidelity, we hope to continue to develop our end-to-end, fault-resistant solutions for enhanced aircraft communications, whatever the satellite network or connectivity platform."
SITA is also working in collaboration with Honeywell to optimize the transmission of digital information between pilots, ATC and airline operations centers (AOCs) using Internet Protocol Suites (IPS). The technology supports Boeing's ambition of testing technologies that focus on the enhancement of flight operations and safety, with the potential to drastically improve ATC communications and end-to-end data