Page 32 - AAA JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2018 Online Magazine

Ahmedabad airport in western India,
allowing one tower to manage aircraft
movements for several nearby airstrips.
The concept will be useful for smaller
airports under the government’s regional
connectivity scheme (RCS), which aims to
utilise underserved andunserved airports
and improve connectivity to tier-2 and
tier-3 cities, Mohapatra says. “Under RCS,
we will have a plethora of airports with just
one or two flights per day. So, rather than
setting up Air Traffic Control towers and
deploying ATC personnel (at each of these
airports) we hope to cover them with the
remote tower concept,” Mohapatra says.
The RVT facility at Ahmedabad will be a Cost Saving Aspects
pilot project. He explained that this model he major rev- growth is not proportional to the
will be successful in states with multiple enue sources growth of revenues due to more
small airports located not far from the main of airports are flights and passengers.
tower. The plan hinges on DGCA’s approval Tlanding fees and Even if a single airport is han-
because remote tower technology is not passenger fees. These dled by a single remote virtual
standardised by the International Civil two correlate a roughly tower, there is some savings
Aviation Organisation, which is still drawing linear relation with air potential. The single configura-
up regulations. In the meantime, countries traffic. No flights and no tion enables operators to work
follow their own safety guidelines. passengers mean no remotely, optimising shift changes
“Remote ATC is all the more needed for revenues; many flights – and the number of supervisor
India given our vast area, low traffic at many passengers – mean positions. However, co-locating
regional airports and the need to keep air- good revenues. ATS has multiple RVTs into one remote
fares low,” says Amber Dubey, India head to be in place even if tower centre (RTC) can maximise
of aerospace and defence at consultancy there is only a handful savings by allowing the sharing of
of air movements. For resources, since more than one
KPMG. However, in several parts of India, low traffic airports, the airport can be handled by one
availability of reliable power and telecom fixed costs for providing controller in time shift mode.
connectivity is a challenge, says Dubey. ATS are independent The cost of servicing a regional
Searidge, which has established remote of the number of flights airport with remote monitoring
digital towers in Hungary, Albania and and passengers. For could be between 15-50 per cent
Azerbaijan, says it has made a presentation high traffic airports, the of building individual concrete

of its technology to the airport regulator. variable costs for pro- towers, depending on how many
“India is one of the biggest opportunities viding ATS grow slowly, airports are monitored, accord-
in terms of the business potential,” says as more air traffic con- ing to estimates by Saab. Savings
Varun Singh, marketing director at Saab trol officers (ATCOs) and also come from not having to sta-
India, which reportedly has held several more work places are tion air traffic controllers, who are
discussions with the airport regulator. needed. However, this in short supply, in remote parts of
the country for only a couple of
flights a day. India, for example,
has over 3,100 controllers but
needs close to 3,900, and with
more airports planned.

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