AIR TRAVEL IT SOLUTIONS:AN AVIATION software and data communication solutions company based in Dublin has joined an alliance that aims to cut aircraft CO2 emissions, fuel consumption and European flight times.
Airtel ATN has partnered with Norway's Northrop Grumman Park Air Services, Saab of Sweden and Scandinavia's largest independent research group, SINTEF, creating a new alliance that will run €36 million of projects as part of a pan-European public-private partnership.
The alliance will aim to develop the information systems that will be needed to allocate environmentally friendly optimal routes to each individual aircraft, according to SINTEF. The goal is to increase air traffic capacity threefold, while improving safety by a factor of 10 and reducing the environmental impact of every flight by at least 10 per cent.
Frank O'Connor, a veteran engineer of Retix, a Dublin firm that was at the cutting edge of communications software in the 1990s, currently runs Airtel ATN. Kevin Jones, a former boss of Oracle Ireland, is believed to be a non-executive director of the firm, which was previously chaired by former Tánaiste Dick Spring.
"We are talking here about IT tools that will help air traffic controllers forward their aircraft more rapidly and in a more environmentally friendly manner, while maintaining current safety levels," said business development experts Hans Erik Swendgaard and Trond Bakken, who were involved in setting up the group.
