The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) has announced the selection of the Thales TopSky-ATC Flight Data Processing System (FDPS) component, TopSky–Flight Plan, to manage all critical flight plan and aeronautical information interfaces with internal and external systems as well as airline counterparties.
The Thales TopSky-Flight Plan, being delivered in this case as a standalone component, handles all interfaces with 3rd party systems and external agencies and already covers 70% of African airspace.
Commenting on the strategic importance of the project, Thales Vice president and head of Thales ATM, Jean-Marc Alias, said:
“Our position in Africa is truly one of our key success stories. This growing and complex ATM region always presents new and exciting challenges. We are absolutely delighted that The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, already a highly valued long-term Thales customer in the area of navaids, has chosen to extend our partnership by choosing for the very first time one of our ATM automation systems. Due to the close working interrelationships developed by customers and supplier in The ATM market, partnerships are extremely strong and durable. It is therefore never easy to change suppliers, hence extremely gratifying that the ECAA took a gamble in giving us their stamp of approval and we will not fail in proving to them they have made the right decision.”
Strategically this is a critical contract for the French electronics conglomerate as to date it had only supplied the ECAA with navaids, making the sale of its Air Traffic Management automation system extremely important. The TopSky-Flight Plan will also be operating alongside the
existing non-Thales ATC system.
