Plans to introduce seven-day local radar cover at Inverness Airport have taken a significant step forward with the award of a contract to install a radar control room at the airport.

By providing a seven day a week radar service Highlands and Islands Airports Limited will increase the capacity of the airport and achieve environmental benefits by reducing fuel use and noise emissions from aircraft.

A six figure contract has been awarded to industry specialist Barco and is being funded by HIAL in partnership with Hitrans. The regional transport partnership has awarded a grant of £50,000 towards the cost of the installation.

HIAL intends to have seven-day radar cover in place by summer 2007 using radar controllers based at the airport.

The airport’s radar cover is currently provided Monday to Friday via an arrangement between National Air Traffic Services and the Ministry of Defence, using the radar heads at RAF Kinloss and RAF Lossiemouth.

The first phase of the Inverness radar project will see data from these radar heads fed into the new radar control room at Inverness air traffic control tower staffed by HIAL’s own radar controllers.

Earlier this year HIAL signed a contract with Marshall Aviation Services to develop the radar project and is working closely with the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s Safety Regulation Group on the scheme.

HIAL has already internally recruited four air traffic controllers who are undergoing radar training, the first of whom has now gained his qualification. External qualified radar controllers are also being recruited.

The second phase of the project will see HIAL procure its own radar head and install this at the airport to provide local radar cover for the region’s busiest airport which is forecast to be handling more than one million passengers per annum by 2010. This capital investment is planned to be made in 2007/08.

The provision of local radar seven days a week will enhance the service provided to airlines at the airport and allow new approach procedures to be designed which reduce noise and cut down on fuel burn by aircraft as they land at Inverness. It will also reduce delays to inbound aircraft and increase the number of aircraft movements the airport can handle in an hour. The project will also facilitate the development of controlled airspace at the airport.

Passenger numbers at Inverness have increased by 85% since 2000 as a result of the introduction of new air routes and aircraft movements have risen by 51% over the same period. Inverness handled 41% of the total 93,000 aircraft movements at HIAL’s 10 airports last year. The airport is on target to cater for circa 800,000 passengers by the end of March 2007 and has already seen new services to Dublin, Leeds Bradford and Newcastle introduced this year. Ryanair will launch a daily service to Liverpool in October.

Inverness Airport manager James Walton said: “The arrangement we have had with the MoD since 1999 has served the airport well but as the airport continues to develop the time has come to move to providing our own radar.

“This is a major project that will offer significant benefits to the airlines, minimise delays to passengers and mitigate the environmental impact of aircraft movements at Inverness in terms of reducing noise and emissions.

“We are working closely with the industry regulators, the MoD and our specialist consultants to ensure that this project is properly phased and ultimately delivers the radar service a rapidly expanding regional airport like Inverness requires. Barco has extensive experience of providing radar control rooms in Europe and we are delighted that their first UK project will be at Inverness,” said Mr Walton.

Chris Stock, Inverness radar project manager with Marshall said: “This project will deliver an enhanced service to airlines and passengers, provide environmental benefits through new approach procedures and increase the capacity of the airport as it continues to develop new routes to UK and European destinations.

“The next two years will therefore be an exciting phase of development for the airport in line with the expectations of the industry regulators and our customers. Part of this will involve a major consultation exercise on the development of controlled airspace which we aim to commence later this year.”

Frank Köhne, market director ATM at Barco said: “We are delighted that HIAL has selected Barco's advanced approach control system for Inverness Airport. The challenging requirements and demanding schedule make this an exciting project to be part of.”