www.askhelios.com

Management and technology consultants

James Hanson

30 Sep 2015

Remote Towers: What next and how

to make the case

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• Do you know what equipment you really need?

• Do you know how many controllers you really need?

“Knowledge is power”: many airports lack ATC knowledge

• Does your provider work to optimise your operations?

ANSPs exhibit monopolistic behaviour

• Has the threat of a strike ever been a barrier to change?

ATC unions are extremely powerful

• Can you recover ATC costs from TNC?

Costs charged to airports and en-route users vary

• Does your provider share traffic risk?

ATCO supply is not as flexible as airline demand

Airport ATC is expensive

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• Better service?

• Lower cost?

• Both?

Remote Technologies change the value proposition

of ATC

Replaced

by Link

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Scenario 1:

Cost sharing

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Scenario 1: Multiple airports served from a single

remote centre, and even by a single controller

• Centralised TWR ATC can

deliver economies of scale

• in equipment

• in human resources

• Airports can share ATC

costs and other

responsibilities eg SAR,

etc

3:1 Multi-tower

concept1:1 Single tower concept

Remote Tower Centre

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Several remote tower centres are being deployed

RTC Leipzig: 3 airports

(Saarbrücken, Erfurt, Dresden)

RTC Dublin: 2 airports

(Cork, Shannon)

RTC Milan: 2 airports

(Milan Linate, Milan Malpensa)

RTC Bodø: 15 airports

(throughout Norway)

Kongsberg.com

RTC Sundsvall: Several Swedish

airports (initially Örnsköldsvik )

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Scenario 2:

Mobile towers

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Scenario 2: Camera mast can be easily relocated

and erected around the airport

Manage airport upgrades

Provide multiple perspectives of the same airport

Example: Budapest

Implementation

in Budapest

Images courtesy of HungaroControl

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Scenario 3:

Contingency

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Scenario 3: Contingency

• Business continuity

• Reduction in insurance premiums

• Manage operations at night

“States may wish to keep

vacated towers in condition for

eventual contingency operations”

EUROCONTROL Guidelines

for Contingency Planning of

Air Navigation Services

“Our business driver is to use it as a

business continuity option” (DANS)

LHR ‘windowless’

contingency

Hong Kong contingency

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Other

operations

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Other operations

• Improved low visibility

IR vision

• Additional safety layer

Surveillance overlay

Alerting & safety nets

• Detection of animals at night

Motion tracking

• Safety, capacity improvements

Prediction tools

• Simpler picture?3D

simulation

Image: Rheinmetall/Frequentis

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Investment case

Procurement

Regulatory approval

Staff issues

Impact on airlines

There are several hurdles to overcome

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Build up & share

knowledge in ATC

Consider joint procurement

Look at ATC assets

Who owns them? could they be operated by

others? When were they last

upgraded?

Review contracts with

ATC providers

How long are they? Are they

sufficiently prescriptive?

Would they allow Remote ATC?

Engage with regulators

early

What do they think of remote towers? Will the

tower market open up?

How can airports prepare for (or perhaps encourage)

the market?

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Management and technology consultants

James Hanson

Principal Consultant

Tel: +44 1252 451 654