Thales's green flag orchestrator solution successfully deployed in Brest and Reims, France, supporting sustainable Air Traffic Management

Thales and France Direction des Services de la Navigation Aérienne announced successful implementation of the Green Flag Orchestrator solution at the Reims Area Control Centre in France. This milestone marks a new significant step towards more sustainable aviation and aligns with the European Union's environmental goals to reduce 90% of CO2 emissions by 2040. 

Using advanced decision-making algorithms, Thales’s Green Flag Orchestrator is a tool for ANSPs to manage ATC (Air Traffic Control)  ‘constraints’ - restrictions imposed by ATC to ensure the safe and efficient movement of aircraft through controlled airspace, such as altitude restrictions. This tool automatically identifies and suggests ‘opportunities’ to relax some of these ‘constraints’, which are then proposed to airlines, enabling them to optimise their flight plans, thus reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. By ensuring automation and digital coordination, this solution optimizes ANSPs’ workload, while maintaining the same levels of safety and capacity.

This deployment is part of the EU-funded SESAR JU CONCERTO project, which focuses on integrating new technologies and concepts to reduce CO2 emissions and introduce non-CO2 impact management into daily operations. As part of this project, all CONCERTO partners are working to integrate green air traffic control capabilities into the system, balancing capacity and environmental performance.

Florence Serdot-Omer, Head of Unit Validation of Concept and new Technologies at DSNA commented: "The integration of the Green Flag concept at Brest and Reims ACCs aligns with our commitment to promoting a greener aviation industry. This initiative is a crucial step in our environmental strategy and supports our goal of reducing the sector's carbon footprint."

David Antonello, ATM Green Operations Lead at Thales, and CONCERTO project leader stated: "Combining advanced algorithms and collaborative tools, the Green Flag Orchestrator empowers Air Navigation Service Providers and airlines to make environmentally conscious decisions, and unlock numerous opportunities for flight path optimization, paving the way for a more sustainable future in air traffic management.”

Andreas Boschen, Executive Director, SESAR Joint Undertaking said: “Congratulations to Thales and DSNA for the successful deployment of the Green Flag Orchestrator in Reims and Brest. This achievement, delivered through the SESAR CONCERTO project, is a great example of the SESAR innovation pipeline in action—transforming promising ideas into tools that deliver immediate environmental benefits. By accelerating the uptake of eco-efficient solutions like this, we are helping to make Europe’s skies more sustainable, flight by flight.”