Inmarsat, working alongside Airservices Australia, has completed a safety evaluation of flight tracking services to help the global aviation industry meet tracking requirements outlined by ICAO in February, the company announced last week. The ICAO resolution requires commercial aircraft to report their position at least every 15 minutes by the end of next year; the current requirement mandates reporting every 30 to 40 minutes. The reduced interval is designed to ensure ATC can more easily respond to incidents and potential traffic conflicts.
Airservices Australia and Inmarsat believed ADS-C capability could meet ICAO's normal tracking requirements in oceanic airspace and began their evaluation in January over portions of the Brisbane Flight Information Region (FIR). Airspace monitored was expanded to all of northern Australia, Honiara and Nauru oceanic airspace in April. Airways New Zealand joined the evaluation in May by including the Melbourne FIR.
By the end of the trial, aircraft across all oceanic airspace managed by Airservices Australia were being tracked with a minimum reporting rate of 14 minutes. The new rate allowed reduced ATC separation standards that maintained a good balance between system limitations, costs and monitoring requirements during normal operations.