Aireon system goes live

Effective today, Aireon, the first ever real-time, global air traffic surveillance system, is fully operational and in trial use over the North Atlantic. Aireon’s space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) system provides real-time air traffic surveillance and tracking to 100 percent of ADS-B equipped aircraft on the planet. Prior to Aireon’s system coming on-line, traditional ground-based surveillance covered just 30 percent of the globe, meaning civil aviation authorities, commercial carriers and related industry stakeholders relied upon position updates from aircraft every 10-14 minutes to track aircraft outside of radar coverage, not the real-time updates that the Aireon service provides. “For