I recently had the opportunity to meet Indra’s Executive President Air Traffic Management (ATM), Victor Martinez. We discussed the current topics in Air Traffic Management engineering in Europe and globally, as well as the growth of Indra.
Design or Production Organisation (DPO)
We started the discussion with the new DPO certification required by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Indra is in the process of getting certified and their application has already been submitted. The company sees the new certification and the related processes for change management as a good idea. It will bring centralisation of certification and changes made in one country to be directly reusable everywhere in Europe.
Being certified also proves that the company has solid processes. Victor confirmed that Indra has a good relationship with EASA and the company takes part in many working groups.
When I asked him if the new processes could become a bottleneck, as the agency will have to approve a lot of organisations but also a lot of changes, he did not comment but confirmed that the risk exists and agreed that EASA has more workload now than with the previous certification scheme. Knowledge and capacity exist both with each National Supervisory Authority (NSA) and EASA and Victor expects EASA to have plans to address this risk.
New Service Delivery Model (SDM)
We then discussed the new service delivery model, which seemed to be everywhere at Airspace World this year. He reminded me that Indra is an original signatory of the SESAR joint statement on the transition to the SDM in 2024, and he’s convinced that it will be good for ANSPs but also for technology partners.
Indra invests a lot in modularity, also for their own interest. The partners of the iTEC alliance control 70% of the traffic in Europe and the specific needs of each ANSP are addressed using the type of mechanisms that the SDM promotes.
Victor hopes that the new service delivery model will allow for faster innovation as changes will only require recertification of the modified parts, which should be as small as possible, and not of the full system.
He also recognises that such models create a need for maintaining a system-wide coherence. Indra is both a product and service company, and can act as an integrator. Their ambition is to offer a gate-to-gate system but with a pragmatic approach when required. For example, Indra frequently offers solutions which integrate products from other companies when required.
Victor is not afraid of competition, because Indra has very advanced systems, developed in partnership with ANSPs: “Competition is not bad and if ANSPs want 3rd party components integrated in Indra’s Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), this is ok. Competition is good and acceptable. We also see it as a chance of having our components on other SOAs and you know what? This is OK”.
Growth and acquisitions
Indra recently acquired the simulation company Micro Nav and I asked Victor what is Indra’s strategy behind such acquisitions. He said that Indra does not buy companies as an investment but to grow them. As part of their ambition to be amongst the best companies offering gate-to-gate solutions, they recognise that in some areas, it is better to buy other companies, or partner with them to ensure the best solutions are offered to the market.
He did not comment about potential future acquisitions but he mentioned that the Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) market has a lot of potential for growth but that implementation is slower than many expected. This is one segment where he expects to see more consolidation.
Indra also grows in digital towers – which are not always remote. Actually, Victor prefers to call them Digital Augmented Towers, as digitalisation is about augmenting Air Traffic Controllers (ATCO) capabilities. For example by integrating multiple angles from various cameras in an outside view, making it possible to see behind buildings.
Indra has a large digital tower project with Avinor, and their system in Budapest has now been accepted and it is on track to become the largest airport controlled from a digital control tower.
Cross-pollination in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and platforms
I could not close the interview without touching on AI and Victor’s answer took an interesting direction. Indra is not only an ATM company. AI is organised in a cross-domain fashion, with many experts in a pool, supporting different domains of activity like transportation, defence, security, etc. This allows for cross-pollination and experience sharing across different areas.
However, AI is not the only discipline organised this way. For example, digital platforms (as the one used for the iNM project at EUROCONTROL), cybersecurity and many other digital technologies are also provided by transversal departments which support multiple product lines.
Another example of expertise sharing is the latest contract that Indra won in the UK, for new 3D primary radars. They will be used by NATS to control civil air traffic but the products originate from Indra’s military department are an example of defence products being “civilised” to serve a new range of customers.
Valuing customers
Victor’s final thoughts to close the interview are that Indra’s ambition is to lead the ATM technology domain and that the “how” is as important as the “what”. He is extremely proud and sees a lot of value in long standing relationships with existing customers. The company is up to the journey and excited to be the leader in ATM development.
