The timely availability of meteorological information to all relevant stakeholders is the primary solution to mitigate the impact of bad weather on aviation operations, both in the air and on the ground. Airlines, airports and air navigation service providers can improve their planning to avoid unfavorable conditions, but they need immediate access to actual observations and forecast weather data.

To this purpose, the largest European MET service providers are finalizing the setup of their new SWIM service access points, where all ATM stakeholders can retrieve relevant MET information for their operations. This includes high-quality and real-time 3D weather radar data, probability forecasts for winter weather conditions and forecasts of weather hazards (including icing, turbulence and convection, etc.) offering a single, harmonized, pan-European view of these weather phenomena to help enhance situational awareness.

The availability of all this information will not only enable an improved planning of operations and reduce unexpected delays, but it will also support optimized flight paths for Airspace Users, with positive effects on the environment due to less consumption of fossil fuels.