EUROCONTROL deploys the first digital air traffic management platform in public cloud and the largest aeronautical database in the world

EUROCONTROL, an international civil-military organisation dedicated to supporting European aviation and responsible for the management of the air traffic network in Europe, has successfully implemented, with the collaboration of ATOS and Microsoft, the first digital platform for air traffic management in the public cloud, using the digital platform developed by Indra. This development, part of the integrated Network Management (iNM) programme, drives the digitisation of the systems that manage the European aviation network.

Indra's solution represents an unprecedented milestone in the air traffic sector as it can be integrated into a public cloud and, if necessary, into a private infrastructure, allowing all the agents involved more flexible management to adapt to traffic demand, access critical and updated data in real time, and guarantee greater operational resilience. 

Indra has integrated advanced levels of cybersecurity throughout the technical implementation and has applied the highest security standards in the Microsoft Azure public cloud to protect all the data handled by the system, in addition to reinforcing the security of operations in a critical environment such as air traffic. Furthermore, the development of Indra's digital platform in a public cloud infrastructure lays the foundations for future developments in air traffic management to be independent of the different hardware infrastructures that support them, which reduces the costs associated with physical environments.

The digital platform developed by Indra will also host the first version of the world's largest aeronautical information system, eEAD (electronic European AIS Database), which will centralise high-quality global data in a single database with improved capabilities compared to the current one. 

Thanks to the company's development, EUROCONTROL has successfully managed to bring the first version of the eEAD system into operation ‘in the shadows’, within a secure environment in which real users will be able to execute and validate functionalities. In this way, coexistence has been achieved with the existing EAD (European AIS Database), which will continue to operate to ensure reliable processing, distribution and pre-flight information services worldwide.

‘This digital platform is a landmark achievement in the digitisation of air traffic management and paves the way towards infrastructure independence and full use of the cloud in European aviation. This pioneering achievement by EUROCONTROL will optimise operations and enable future challenges to be addressed in a more efficient and cloud-adapted way. At Indra, we are proud to be part of this groundbreaking development that reaffirms our commitment to contribute to sustainable aviation in Europe and globally,’ said Victor Martinez Garcia, head of Indra's Air Traffic Management (ATM) business for Northern Europe and Canada.