Data Link Support Group #4 meeting on 17-18 September 2020

On 17 and 18 September 2020, the  fourth meeting of the Datalink Support Group (DSG) was organized by EUROCONTROL NM having SDM support. This online meeting was an occasion for the DSG to meet and confer on Datalink Services-related matters, providing updates on pending matters from the previous DSG meetings and addressing further actions to be discussed and taken by the group during this fourth meeting. It was attended by a wide variety of stakeholders, counting civil and military airspace users, ANSPs, aviation manufacturers, institutional partners and airports, with over 100 attendees.

Born out of the necessity to resolve the technical and operational issues around Data Link Services (DLS) in Europe and the need to identify the root cause(s) of reported datalink issues, SDM, EASA and EUROCONTROL NM established the Datalink Support Group (DSG) that bring together all the relevant stakeholders.

In accordance with the Terms of Reference, the objectives of the DSG are to:

·       Encourage discussions between all impacted stakeholders in the ATM sector;

·       Investigate technical and operational issues arising during the DLS operations;

·       Propose potential technical and operational solutions.

DSG meetings are chaired by the airspace users, IATA (presently awaiting the nomination of a representative to fulfil this role) and ANSPs – DFS and Skyguide. The secretariat is provided by NM and SDM.

In order to support the investigations, a core team of experts – the DSG Support Team (DST) – was created to provide the required expertise and the active contribution needed to find feasible solutions for the raised datalink problems. SDM actively supports the work undertaken at DST level, together with NM, ANSPs (Austrocontrol, DFS, MUAC, Skyguide, NATS), CSPs (SITA and ARINC) and industry (Airbus, Boeing, Collins, Honeywell, Thales).

On the 17th and 18th of September 2020, DSG held a virtual meeting chaired by Luc Chevalley (Skyguide) and Klauspeter Hauf (DFS). This meeting was an occasion for the DSG to meet and confer on DLS-related matters, providing updates on pending matters from the previous DSG #3 meeting and addressing further actions to be discussed and resolved by the group during this fourth meeting. It was attended by a wide variety of stakeholders, counting civil and military airspace users, ANSPs, aviation manufacturers, institutional partners and airports, with over 100 attendees.

SDM, supporting EUROCONTROL NM, will continue to raise awareness and promote the DSG activity in order to attract active participation from different stakeholders.