Frequentis user experience conference brings heads of air navigation companies from around the world to Finland
Every 18 months, Frequentis, an air navigation technology supplier, organises a user experience conference that brings together the technical managers and development managers of air navigation companies based around the world. This year, the three-day conference was held in Finland, in cooperation with Fintraffic's Air Navigation Services. A jointly prepared vision paper on multimodal traffic management and control was also published during the event. What was this conference about and what was particularly memorable this year?
At its user experience conference, Frequentis offers air navigation companies from different countries an opportunity to network with each other and learn about new future solutions while collecting user feedback from the participants on its technology and services. This is a fully technology-focused conference aimed at providing air navigation companies the opportunity to pick up useful ideas from around the world on how to provide safe, smooth services for airspace users in the future that cause as little environmental stress as possible. This year, a total of 50 guests from around the world arrived at the event, from places such as USA, Canada and various European countries. Eight people represented Fintraffic at the event.
“Cross-border benchmarking and cooperation for different modes of traffic is becoming more common. For Fintraffic, it was important to hear about and speak with representatives of different countries about strategic development programmes and how technology will support the development of operations in the coming years, says Raine Luojus, CEO of Fintraffic Air Navigation Services.
Accelerating pace of technological development sparked discussion
The programme for the conference consisted of panel discussions and inspiring speeches. This year, speeches were heard on topics such as the accelerating pace of technological development, resilience, cyber security and unmanned aviation. In addition to representatives of Frequentis and Fintraffic's Air Navigation Services, speakers included Professor of Practice, author and chair of Fintraffic Ltd’s Board of Directors Tero Ojanperä, and Professor Mark Gillan who has served as the chief operations engineer of a Formula1 team and head of R&D for air navigation services in the United Kingdom and is currently a University professor.
"It was great that we were able to get such world-class speakers to take part. In particular, speeches related to automation, digitalisation and artificial intelligence attracted interest and discussion. The conference guests were very satisfied with the event’s high-quality content and their time spent in Finland, in spite of the grey November weather,” explains Matts-Anders Nyberg from Fintraffic’s Air Navigation Services, who served as the conference's contact person and facilitator.
A vision paper on multimodal traffic management and control was published at the conference
In addition to organising this year's conference in Finland, the event was significant for Fintraffic also in another way. This was because a vision paper on multimodal traffic control was published during the conference. Fintraffic personnel from various modes of transport and personnel from Frequentis took part in preparing the document.
“In the future, traffic must be directed more in a more multimodal manner, both on land, at sea and in the air. Finland is a leading country in traffic control, where one Group is tasked with the management of services for all forms of traffic. We are a practical example of how new opportunities to increase the efficient movement of people and goods can be developed by sharing traffic information. In addition to our shared vision with Frequentis, the document published at the conference defines, among other things, an approach to planning a multimodal entity, the role of traffic data and the principles of practical architecture. There are also concrete examples of user cases, says Fintraffic’s Chief Ecosystem and Technology Officer Janne Lautanala.
