Indra Secures Over €40 Million in New SESAR 3 Projects, Leads ARTEMISA and NEURON

Indra Group has secured more than €40 million in new innovation projects under the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) 3 Joint Undertaking programme, the European initiative developing technologies for the Digital European Sky. The new portfolio builds on phase 1 of SESAR 3, in which Indra completed 21 innovation projects whose outcomes have been translated into solutions already integrated into operational air traffic management systems.

Indra will coordinate two projects, ARTEMISA and NEURON. ARTEMISA will develop a new generation of en-route and terminal area air traffic management platforms with higher levels of automation and interoperability, based on an open, modular, service-oriented architecture that eases the integration of new capabilities and secure information exchange between systems. It will work towards Level 4 automation as defined by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), allowing systems to make and execute decisions autonomously in routine operational situations, under human supervision.

NEURON, underway since June 2026, will address airport operations through four integrated solutions: optimised aircraft taxiing, surface movement surveillance, visual intelligence for digital towers and collaborative airport operations planning. Combining automation and artificial intelligence, it aims to make operations more predictable and efficient, reduce fuel consumption and emissions, and enhance airport safety.

Indra is the technology partner of the iTEC Collaboration, whose air navigation service providers are DFS (Germany), ENAIRE (Spain), NATS (United Kingdom), LVNL (the Netherlands), PANSA (Poland), Avinor (Norway), Oro Navigacija (Lithuania) and NAV CANADA (Canada). The addition of the Canadian provider extends the collaboration beyond Europe. Indra also takes part in other projects covering route efficiency, system resilience, airspace optimisation and environmental impact: NET-TBO 2, ATC-TBO 2, GEESE 2 and RAXUS.

Oscar López Otero, Director of Innovation and iTEC Collaboration at Air Traffic in Indra, said the completion of the 21 phase 1 projects and the launch of the phase 2 projects consolidate Indra's role as one of the main drivers of the transformation of Europe's air traffic management system.

Air traffic management modernisation in Europe is delivered largely through shared research programmes in which a handful of technology suppliers work alongside groups of air navigation service providers. The SESAR 3 structure shows the pattern: results from one phase are carried into operational systems, and the next phase extends them. Indra's phase 1 record of 21 completed projects feeding live systems illustrates how research funding becomes procurement-relevant capability.

The automation direction is the more consequential strand. ARTEMISA's work toward EASA Level 4 automation, with systems executing routine decisions under human supervision, points to controller workload and platform architecture being redesigned together. An open, modular, service-oriented design matters commercially because it lowers the cost of swapping or adding capabilities, which changes how incumbent suppliers defend their positions.

The iTEC membership adds a second dimension. With NAV CANADA now in a group otherwise made up of European providers, a common platform roadmap is no longer confined to one continent, which widens the base over which development costs are shared. The next markers are how far ARTEMISA progresses toward Level 4 and how NEURON's four airport solutions move from the programme that began in June 2026 into operational use.