International Industry Partnerships

The A6 Alliance, founded by the ANSP members of the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU), is an inclusive coalition of ANSPs across Europe who are committed to helping modernise the European ATM system. The aim of the A6 Alliance is to identify and synchronise the key capabilities of its members, and deploy them to best effect to deliver customer and network benefits. The A6 Alliance also provides leadership at a European level in critical technical and strategic areas.

In 2023, AirNav Ireland's Chief Executive, Peter Kearney, chaired the CEO-led Steering Board of the Alliance. In 2023, its priorities included:

• Define, develop & deploy innovative technological solutions and operational procedures through participation and taking the lead in key digitalisation projects to deliver a modernised and sustainable ATM for European skies.
• Engagement with aviation sector stakeholders on ANSP service provision considerations and planning for 2023 air traffic management in conjunction with the European Commission and EUROCONTROL's Network Manager.

The A6 Alliance in collaboration with the EUROCONTROL NM, other key service providers, airports and airlines were successful in reducing average delay per flight in Summer 2023 by 0.32 minutes with an associated reduction in CO2 emissions. The Alliance members signed a revised Memorandum of Cooperation to secure continued collaboration within the ANSP coalition that represents and manages 80% of Europe's ATM network.

The Borealis Alliance is a partnership amongst the ANSPs of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Its goal is to emerge as the premier ANSP alliance, dedicated to enhancing airspace management for the benefit of airline and business aviation clientele.

Its biggest project to date has been the implementation of 'free route airspace' (FRA) by all member states, allowing ANSP's to offer shorter and more direct routing. The implementation of FRA by the Borealis Alliance members has resulted in shorter flight times for customers, thereby reducing emissions.  

COOPANS is developed as an international partnership between AirNav Ireland and the air navigation service providers (ANSPs) of Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Sweden and system supplier, Thales.

2023 was a pivotal year for the COOPANS Alliance as it explored the options surrounding a major system upgrade that will provide capacity enhancements, increased virtualisation, automation and ensure compliance with future regulations, while aligning with the ATM Master Plan and Digital European Sky. The COOPANS Alliance continues to achieve significant value for money by pooling its resources to develop a common system.

AirNav Ireland was particularly active in the COOPANS CEO-led Alliance Board, its Programme Board, the A6 Alliance (of which COOPANS is a member), the Legal Group and External Relations. Its staff play a central role on the COOPANS Management Team where the focus is on the day-to-day management of the current system.

In 2023, the COOPANS Alliance was successful in its application for EU funding, amounting to €34.3 million, for a Digital Sky Demonstrator, which will demonstrate the virtual centre concept across all six COOPANS members.

AirNav Ireland entered into an important strategic training alliance with Entry Point North (EPN), a well established international Air Traffic Management training academy.

In 2003, AirNav Ireland and its Icelandic counterpart Isavia formed an alliance for the provision of High Frequency (HF) radio in the North Atlantic region.