NAV CANADA joins the iTEC Alliance to foster more efficient and sustainable aviation

• iTEC, one of the Single European Sky pillars, will become a global alliance striving to improve air traffic management.
• NAV CANADA, which manages the second-largest airspace in the world, will adopt the iTEC SkyNex system, which is being deployed in some of the world’s most complex and busiest skies, including those of Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Lithuania. With this Alliance, the partners of iTEC manage an airspace covering 26 million square kilometers.
• With NAV CANADA’s entry into the Alliance, the iTEC SkyNex system will be extended to a total of 27 control centers in eight countries to provide a common technology that supports more sustainable aviation with fewer emissions.
• Aircrafts will be able to cross half of the globe with iTEC SkyNex as the system managing their flights

Geneva. 20 March 2024. NAV CANADA is joining the iTEC Alliance and gives further momentum to an initiative that brings together some of the world’s leading air navigation service providers. With this important partnership, iTEC has reached beyond the European borders for the first time and continues its cooperative venture to create a more efficient and environment-friendly generation of air traffic management systems.

The signing took place today at the Airspace World event in Geneva which has brought together some of the main players in air traffic management ecosystem. Mark Cooper, Vice-President and Chief Technology and Information Officer on behalf of NAV CANADA, and the main representatives of the iTEC Alliance, Dirk Mahns, DFS COO and Chairman of iTEC Board; Kuldeep Gharatya, NATS Technical Services Director; Laura Garcés, ENAIRE Deputy Director ANS; Jan-Gunnar Pedersen, Avinor ANS CEO; Magdalena Jaworska-Maćkowiak, PANSA President; Marlou Banning, LVNL CFO; Saulius Batavičius, Oro Navigacija CEO; and Javier Ruano, Indra’s ATM General Director, signed the agreement.

With this settlement, cooperation between Europe and North America will be reinforced, and global air traffic will reach new levels of efficiency thanks to a more collaborative management. This partnership also brings the possibility of operating transoceanic flights using the same technology from start to finish, thereby facilitating smoother traffic management across both sides of the world’s busiest oceanic areas.

The joining of NAV CANADA, who plays a unique and critical role in managing the second-largest airspace in the world, constitutes a significant advancement for the Alliance—expanding its partnered airspace from 8 million to over 26 million square kilometres and supporting more than 12 million flights from 27 control centres each year. Aircraft will be able to cross almost half of the globe with iTEC SkyNex as the system managing their flights.

iTEC SkyNex will facilitate the introduction of Trajectory-Based Operations (TBO) into Canada, steer air traffic management towards a strategic approach and provide a more comprehensive view of the flight from take-off to landing. This new technology can accurately calculate trajectories and manage the progress of flights over a broader horizon, allowing for improved planning and greater efficiency. The system will increase efficiency, provide greater data accuracy, optimize flight paths and resources, reduce delays and CO2 emissions, and cut down costs significantly.

With the incorporation of NAV CANADA, the alliance will also acquire a partner that will contribute to evolving the iTEC SkyNex system and speeding up the introduction of new technologies, concepts and ever more sophisticated functions, sharing costs and know-how.

“We are delighted to be the first non-European ANSP to join the iTEC Alliance. Founded on the spirit of collaboration, NAV CANADA is proud to now be part of this partnership. A better future is ahead of us with iTEC SkyNex; we are now in a position to achieve goals that were previously unimaginable and build towards more sustainable skies,” said Raymond G. Bohn, President and CEO, NAV CANADA.

Dirk Mahns, DFS COO and Chairman of the iTEC Board, stated that “NAV CANADA’s entry into the alliance constitutes a significant milestone and highlights the fact that we have a highly advanced technology and a spirit of collaboration that are delivering tangible results and encouraging interoperability between air navigation service providers, a key aspect to transforming aviation and managing flights more intelligently and efficiently”.