MUAC as an ATM data service provider

The Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) is a leading innovator, recognised for its
outstanding air traffic management (ATM) operations and data services, which set the standard for
the industry.

In the last few years, MUAC has been developing the vision that in addition to continuing to provide
its air traffic management services to its direct customers, the airlines, it also aims to become an
ATM data service provider (ADSP).

This will mean that MUAC looks for partnerships to develop scalable collaborative solutions
with other air navigation service providers (ANSPs), further increasing international cooperation,
which reduce the fragmentation of systems and software, reduce costs and contribute to lowering
environmental impact, thereby supporting the virtual centre concept and the airspace architecture
vision.

Shared ATS Systems (SAS)

In 2013, the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) was its first new ADSP partner in the framework of
the first SAS project, in which MUAC shared its radar and flight data systems with the RNLAF,
followed by the Belgian Air Force in 2019 (SAS2). Since 2016, continuous validations have been
ongoing under a cooperation agreement with Slovenia Control, preparing for operational
introduction in the future, and we are in the initial phase of discussing a collaboration with Deutsche
Flugsicherung (DFS).

The first civil ANSP planning to become operational using ATM data provided by MUAC is skeyes.
Skeyes operates the lower airspace in Belgium and therefore perfectly complements the upper
airspace experience already available at MUAC. This project is the third in the line of SAS projects
and the most complex so far.

SAS3 officially started in September 2021 and is planned to take six years until the “first” initial
operational capability.

However, SAS3 already comes with plans beyond this, to be realised in the years following the first
six. This partnership will strengthen the position of MUAC and its partners and will generate a lot of
energy and possibilities for the future of this joint civil/military and upper/lower airspace
cooperation in Western Europe.

To reinforce its existing pool of in-house experts to support this challenging and exciting project,
MUAC has started recruiting experienced software and hardware engineers in various domains and
specialisations. Vacancies have been rolling out on a continuous basis and more will follow in the
coming months. Apply on jobs.eurocontrol.int if you want to become part of this exciting project.