An Independent Air Traffic Management and Airports Consultancy
Specialising in concept development, systems deployment and performance improvement.
SERVICES
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
The thought of replacing an ATM system, either in part or in full, can be daunting. We help guide ANSPs through this process, making sure that the right jobs are being done at the right time to achieve a safe, acceptable, on-time and on-budget implementation.
SIMULATION
Simulation is a capability at the core of our services. It allows you to test new concepts, systems or operators in a realistic way without using your actual platform or compromising operational safety
ANALYTICS
In today’s digital ATM environment one of the most useful tools in understanding your ATM Operations is Analytics. Through the use of advanced analytical methods Think can help airport and ATM stakeholders make better decisions.
case studies
DEVELOP
Defining, maturing and validating new concepts and systems.
Deploy
Helping you implement new concepts and systems in your environment.
IMPROVE
Using real world data to understand and optimise operations.
news & views
Safety Assurance of Complex Systems
Would you trust a self-driving car to take you on your next journey? If not, why not? Is it because you don’t know what decisions the car is going to make along the journey to keep you safe?
This question, specifically, how do you ensure the safety of a system ...
Think presenting at CANSO Remote & Digital Tower Academy workshop
Rory Hedman, Sarah McLarty and Elizabet Pavlova will be presenting at the ‘Improving efficiency through remote and digital towers’ CANSO Academy series. The webinar series is being moderated by our MD, Conor Mullan and will include contributions from key ...
Think lead high-fidelity tower simulation for Abu Dhabi’s new Terminal Building
Think consultant Jonathan Twigger was in the United Arab Emirates in December to lead an eight-day validation activity, simulating operations at Abu Dhabi International Airport’s new Midfield-Terminal Building (MTB).
THINK TAKE TO THE STAGE AT ICAO SYMPOSIUM
On Thursday 10th December Paul Ravenhill took to the stage on the ICAO Global Symposium which this year focused on the ‘Implementation of Innovation in Aviation’. Paul was invited to join the 5th panel with the main topic of discussion being the economic ...
AIRPORT APPROACHES IN A NUTSHELL
Over the past few years Think have been involved in a range of R&D and deployment projects for approach concepts, and during that time I have developed my knowledge in this area. There are many different types and categories of approaches and the distinction between them can seem rather confusing!
THINK JOIN ICAO PANEL AT GLOBAL SYMPOSIUM
Next week from the 8th till the 11th December, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will be hosting a series of panels across 3 different time zones as part of their virtual Global Symposium focusing on the ‘Implementation Of Innovation In ...
THINK LEAD RECORD NUMBER OF SIMS IN 5 MONTHS!
Think has been leading Real Time Simulation (RTS) Validation Activities all around the world since its foundation in 2004. These range from simulations to develop early maturity SESAR concepts to the very large scale demonstrations addressing Free Route ...
Think conclude set of IA Development Simulations for Schiphol
Last month saw the conclusion of four development simulations for the implementation of Intelligent Approach (IA) at Schiphol airport, which were co-ordinated by Think with support from NATS IA air traffic controller (ATCo) lead. Think’s involvement in the ...
Assessing Airspace Environmental Aspects
Airspace change proposals vary significantly in terms of complexity, size and environmental impact – they could be simple, straightforward and with limited environmental and operational effect (e.g. route replication), or they could be complex changes with ...
Hydrogen Powered Aircraft – A saviour or a step too far?
Our previous blogs have covered aviation emissions in the past and future years. We now turn towards one of the high-profile candidates for minimising aviation’s impact on climate – Hydrogen Powered Aircraft, where hydrogen is used as a fuel instead of kerosene. ...
Aviation emissions, the path to 2050 and a hint of optimism
Photo by Mladen Borisov on Unsplash
I've expended quite a few words recently on our need as an industry to honestly own our emissions problem and to take the COVID pause as an opportunity to rethink our ambitions of unfettered growth. (TL;DR: We need something ...
FUTURE PBN TMAS WILL NEED ADVANCED FLOW MANAGEMENT
In my previous blog article, I presented a new focus for advanced approach concepts - harnessing their environmental benefits in a future very high density PBN approach airspace. In this blog, I continue with the next step in this idea - the means of getting the ...
Introducing…Word of the Weeks
And now for something different… Step inside the mind of one of our biggest brains at Think as Principal Consultant Peter Weeks brings you his own unique insight into the future of ATM concepts.
Paul Ravenhill Moderating Standards Evolution Workshop
Tomorrow at 10:00am marks the start of the virtual Standards Evolution Workshop which is being organised by EUROCONTROL in partnership with the European Commission and the EASA.The workshop aims to bring together stakeholders to discuss how standards can ...
Think Attends Annual AirTOp and ArcPORT User Groups
November is an exciting month for our Fast Time Simulation (FTS) team. Our AirTOp expert, Elizabet Pavlova, and our ArcPORT expert, Irene Boñal Bravo, will both be attending the online User Group Conferences organised by Transoft Solutions. During the events, ...
MODE SWITCHING IN DIGITAL TOWER TRANSITION
When the market talks Digital Towers, it usually focuses on operational benefits or technological advancements, and not so much on the human performance and human factors. Yet we at Think have long acknowledged that this is a significant aspect of the concept, ...
Think supporting EUROCONTROL in SESAR 2020 Wave 2
We are pleased to have been awarded our first contract within the second wave of SESAR 2020. Our consultants have begun providing comprehensive support to EUROCONTROL for the duration of the PJ.02-W2-14 solution. The ‘Evolution Of Separation Minima For ...
COVID protocols -still necessary, still possible
Back in May we did some analysis on the COVID-related measures likely to be put in place during air travel. We modelled some recovery scenarios across the terminal and the gate as traffic started to pick up following “lockdown” across Europe. Now that 6 months have passed and we have a clearer picture of what form the recovery is taking, we’ve taken a look back at our modelling to see if the analysis still holds.
Challenging The 80/20 Fallacy of ATCO Workload
As Human Factors has grown as a discipline within the ATM industry, controller workload has slowly gained appreciation by decision makers as a key performance indicator (KPIs) and is now a standard marker of operational feasibility across development projects – and
A step towards sustainable mobility in Europe
From the 16th to the 22nd of September many politicians, companies and individuals celebrated this year’s European Mobility Week, ironically, in a year where mobility has been reduced to unprecedented levels. As a result, this year we are more aligned than we ...
THINK SHOWCASING ROMIAD AT ENGAGE SUMMER SCHOOL
We are ready for school! This week is the second summer school organised by the Engage KTN the SESAR Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), rather than the usual physical event, this year will be a virtually run event in the Autumn. It is set to be a great gathering
Do We Need To Regulate Virtualisation?
The Airspace Architecture Study (AAS) provides a blueprint for removing structural inefficiencies in Europe through a process of virtualisation. However, the AAS does not consider how this process could be incentivised through economic regulation. Whilst the SES ...
Got a SESAR 2020 project? Here are my top tips
In 2004, just as Think was starting, something else was born – the Single European Sky ATM Research Programme (SESAR). A few years later, in 2008, the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU) was set up to manage the research and develop phases of the project. In the ...
INTEGRATING COMMERCIAL SPACEFLIGHT INTO ATM
Spaceflight is booming. Virgin Galactic and SpaceX have become household names in recent years with their impressive feats of engineering. Virgin Galactic are set to take tourists to the edges of space and SpaceX want to take us to Mars! All of this though is ...
Update to Think’s Remote Tower Map
Back in June we updated our website to include a Remote and Digital Towers resources page, this included Think’s first-of-its-kind map of Digital Tower projects which uses a unique dataset to help to visualise the current landscape of this concept. Despite it ...
The numbers underpinning the UK aviation industry’s climate ambitions
We've written recently about the climate aspects of the UK aviation industry and how we could prioritise carbon reduction as we eventually recover from the downturn. In preparing that article we noted that, at the aviation industry level, there are many figures ...
Think’s First Socially Distanced (and Remote) Simulation!
When the COVID-19 pandemic news erupted, and the seriousness of the situation was realised, the initial schedule for the implementation of Intelligent Approach (IA) at Schiphol Airport instantly appeared a lot more challenging.
SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE OF UAM – A GREAT UNKNOWN
To anyone that has the slightest interest in the future of air mobility, even a basic google search will illustrate current excitement of 2020 being the pivotal year for eVTOLs (electric Vertical Take-off and Landing) and UAM (Urban Air Mobility). The underlying concept of enabling enhanced mobility using small aircraft have been around for quite some time now, originating with the idea of “flying cars” initially outlined in the1930s.
Think moderates webinar on The Role Of Digital Towers
Think MD, Conor Mullan will moderate a webinar tomorrow (11th August ) on ‘The Role of Digital Towers in Future Air Traffic Management’.The webinar is being run by Airport Show Insights and ATC Forum at 2pm and will include guest speakers from SAAB Digital Air ...
IS VIRTUAL TRAINING FOR ATCOS THE FUTURE?
On the 18th June I attended a Webinar entitled ‘Leading the way: Virtual Training for ATCOs’, of which our Manging Director, Conor Mullan, participated along with Greg Pile, MD from Micro Nav, Sharon Cooke from Airways International NZ and Waleed Al Riyami, Air Traffic Services Inspector from GCAA .
