28 Sep 2023

Indra positions Dubai Air Navigation Services (dans) at the forefront of the global deployment of SWIM, the air traffic information management system of the future

SWIM is key to enhancing interoperability between air navigation service providers worldwide and facilitating more efficient traffic management.

Indra, through its company Indra Avitech, has made the Dubai Air Navigation Services (dans) one of the pioneers of the deployment of the SWIM (System Wide Information Management) system, the intranet that will globally connect all the players in the aviation world to facilitate much more coordinated and efficient Air Traffic Management.

The ANSP has chosen Indra to move to this state-of-the-art platform, which will connect the different aeronautical information systems used by airports, air navigation service providers, airlines, air forces and meteorological services.

Jon Goyarzu, CEO of Indra Avitech explained: “The SWIM system has been designed to facilitate seamless exchanges of information, in such a way that the different parties involved in the efficient provision of traffic operations share the same view of the situation and make decisions in a more collaborative manner, thus helping us increase the safety and improving the traffic flow.”

Ibrahim Ahli, Deputy CEO, Dubai Air Navigation Services (dans), said: “Dubai continues to invest in the latest technologies to expand and overcome future challenges in Air Traffic Navigation services and to ensure its superiority in the field to reflect on the ongoing growth of aviation industry across the globe.”

He added: “We believe and work to be the top institution in the world. Continuous innovation in the infrastructure and service facilities in the aviation industry are of great importance to achieving success, competitiveness, and efficiency in operations.”

With this project the two organizations have set the bar for the world’s other air navigation service providers, which will have to deploy the new system in the coming years. They are also forging ahead in defining the first use cases of the system in the region, thereby benefiting the rest of the sector and helping facilitate the work of the regulators.

Safety alerts for pilots

Indra is also working on the renewal of the dans Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) system, the information system that is being used currently and that will also connect to SWIM in the future.

With the renewal of the system’s software, dans now has the most advanced version, which complies with all the ICAO specifications and incorporates new features, including a much simpler and more attractive user interface and a much more robust level of cybersecurity.

The upgrade also puts dans in a position to switch to Digital NOTAM in the future, the new structured format to be adopted for this kind of alert. NOTAM messages are currently in a text format that makes it very difficult for computers to process them. With the increased traffic and the greater complexity of the global navigation network, the number of NOTAM has risen rapidly, increasing the chances of pilots missing important information from the pile of free text, abbreviated messages that they need to seethe through every flight. With their digitization, NOTAM messages are now in machine-readable format that allows them to be processed and managed automatically, making them also easy to upgrade and much more reliable. Most importantly, the pilots will be able to quickly access the information that’s really relevant for their flights, ensuring that the pilot’s workload is reduced, and situational awareness is improved. This will result in higher levels of safety for air traffic around the world