Page 24 - AAA JUNE - JULY 2022 Online Magazine

AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

The concept that became known as remote
tower originated in Europe in the early 2000s
through a series of research programmes. The
concept was developed to address social and
operational requirements to maintain air traffic
services to remote communities in a more effi-
cient and sustainable way.

The first remotely controlled airport in the
world was developed and brought into oper-
ation by Saab and the Swedish Airports and
Air Navigation Services, on April 21, 2015 at
Sweden’s Örnsköldsvik’s Airport. Saarbrücken
Airport in Germany followed suit in 2018. Since
CHANGING then numerous other RTC implementations
have been progressed worldwide, both to
deliver main ATC services remotely and for
improved contingency capabilities. More than
ten years collective experience of safe and suc-
THE FUTURE cessful operations suggest that today RTC is a
proven concept, well explored across the globe
and well- established across the ATM industry.
Europe Leads the Sky
Today, Europe leads the sky in the implementa-
tion of remote tower operations and a growing
DIGITAL AND REMOTE TOWER TECHNOLOGY demand for digital aerodrome services has
HAS BECOME AN ESTABLISHED SOLUTION FOR emerged, which includes a much broader range
of airports and a wider range of operational and
AIRPORTS business requirements.

Jay Menon In this moment of uncertainty, modernising ATM
is at the very core of implementing any future
projects related to Single European Sky (SES)
In the last few years, implementation of Remote Digital Towers initiative. Within this framework, digitalisation
(RDTs) has expanded significantly. From enhancing controller is seen as a valuable tool. As the European
tools and providing additional safety, to offering operational con- Commission spokesperson puts it, “the ATM
tingency and significant cost reductions, the benefits of RDTs are system badly needs a profound digital transfor-
changing the future of Air Traffic Management (ATM) industry in mation to make it more automated, innovative
tower environments. and based on state-of-art components such as
satellite technologies. The modernisation of the
ATM system is and will be the cornerstone of
the implementation of the SES initiative in the
future. Such urgency to digitalise aviation and
ATM in the continent has led to the creation of
what has been described as the SES’ “tech-
nological pillar”, the Single European Sky ATM
Research (SESAR) project.”

Launched in the early 2000s by the European
Commission, the SES project was originally
created with the purpose to improve ATM and
decrease the number of delays in Europe and
mitigate aviation’s environmental impact, as well
as improve capacity and safety across the con-
tinent’s space system by 2020.
As traffic increases, it will be ever more import-

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