DEVICE to begin operational testing of virtual centre platform

The SESAR JU DEVICE project has taken another step towards enabling virtual centres in European air traffic management (ATM) with the successful installation and commissioning of its platform within ENAIRE's operational environment. The milestone marks the start of an extensive testing programme that will demonstrate how air traffic services can be delivered more flexibly across organisational and national boundaries.

The platform is now entering its testing phase, with dedicated sessions planned throughout the summer to assess its capabilities in an operational setting, gather user feedback and support further refinement of the solution across a range of operational scenarios.

A formal validation campaign is scheduled to begin in January 2027, bringing together the project partners to evaluate the operational benefits that the solution could deliver. In parallel, work continues on the latest version of the iTEC SkyNex platform to ensure it is fully prepared to support the forthcoming validation activities.

Co-funded by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and managed by the SESAR Joint Undertaking, DEVICE is a Digital Sky Demonstrator that aims to demonstrate how air traffic services can be delegated between air traffic service units through a virtual centre operating model. By enabling seamless data exchange and interoperability between air navigation service providers, the project will allow air traffic services to be delivered more flexibly, efficiently and resiliently across airspace boundaries.

To achieve this, DEVICE is industrialising an early version of the iTEC SkyNex platform and demonstrating it in two operational clusters: the Iberian Cluster, involving Spain and Portugal, and the Lublin Triangle Cluster, involving Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. Within the Iberian Cluster, the project is demonstrating virtual centre architectures that enable different models of ATM data sharing and service provision, including a joint exercise with the EXODUS project to share flight tracking information between the Lisbon and Madrid Area Control Centres (ACCs) using the triangle architecture. This exercise will showcase how specialised ATM data service providers can support the same air traffic service unit, highlighting the potential of virtual centres to enhance interoperability and enable more flexible service delivery. Overall, the project is validating three complementary virtual centre architectures, demonstrating different ways of sharing ATM data services and supporting air traffic service provision across multiple centres.

The successful deployment of the platform at ENAIRE marks an important step towards validating the virtual centre concept under operational conditions and reflects the continued collaboration of the project partners as they work to accelerate the deployment of next-generation air traffic management capabilities across Europe.

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