Plans to introduce seven-day local radar cover at Inverness Airport have taken a significant step forward today (Friday 15 June 2007) with the award of a multi-million pound contract to construct and install the airport’s own radar head.
Highlands and Islands Airports today signed a contract with Thales ATM Ltd. to provide a primary and secondary radar unit at Dalcross which will enable the airport to provide full independent radar cover to air traffic for the first time ever.
The multi-million pound procurement is part of a two-phase project initiated by HIAL last summer. The development of the airport’s own radar service has been driven by traffic growth, safety management and the industry regulator’s expectations for a rapidly expanding regional airport.
Since 1999 the airport’s local radar cover has been 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. However, increasing demands on military air traffic control resources are such that it was not possible for this service to continue indefinitely. In 2005, HIAL took the decision to provide its own radar service.
Last year HIAL signed a contract with Marshall Aviation Services to develop the radar project and continues to work closely with the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s Safety Regulation Group on the roll out of the scheme.
Over the past year the first phase of the Inverness radar project has involved feeding data from the RAF radar heads into a new radar control room which has been installed at Inverness air traffic control tower. The six figure capital cost of this phase included a £50,000 grant from the regional transport partnership Hitrans. This service will go live early next month and has involved HIAL recruiting additional air traffic controllers and training its own staff at Inverness to radar standard.
The second phase of the project, marked by today’s contract signing, sees HIAL procuring the construction and installation of its own radar head at the airport to provide independent local radar cover for the region’s busiest airport which is forecast to be handling up to one million passengers per annum by 2010.
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 100% since 2000 as a result of the introduction of new air routes and aircraft movements have risen by 60% over the same period. Inverness handled 41% of the total 93,000 aircraft movements at HIAL’s 10 airports last year. The airport will handle more than 700,000 passengers this year.
Inglis Lyon, HIAL’s managing director said: “This is a major step forward for the airport and is a significant investment in future operations at Inverness. Our growth since 1999 meant that the time was right to move from the current radar arrangement to delivering our own facility and being independent.
“We have negotiated a very competitive deal with Thales which will set a new benchmark for radar procurement in the UK market. Their technical expertise will ensure that the second phase of the radar project will see us move to completely independent operations in late 2008.
“We’ve had a good working relationship with the MoD over the years but the differing needs of civil and military traffic meant that last year the time was right to look to the future. I’m pleased to say that this relationship continues through use of their radar data until our own radar head is installed on site and is fully operational,” said Mr Lyon.
Inverness Airport manager James Walton said: “This project 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, our specialist consultants and Thales UK to ensure that this project delivers the radar service a rapidly expanding regional airport like Inverness requires,” said Mr Walton.
Peter McSweeney, sales director of Thales ATM Ltd. said: “This contract was won in the face of stiff competition and is of huge strategic importance to Thales in the UK. I very much hope we will be able to build on this success and become one of the leading suppliers of primary and secondary radar to the UK civil market.
“Inverness Airport operates in close proximity to two RAF airfields and the current air traffic control operation is backed by a co-ordinated radar based service provided by RAF Lossiemouth. The provision of a dedicated radar system at Inverness will allow reduced separation and greater integrity for airport related aircraft movements, along with enhanced detection of helicopters and small aircraft.”
RSS feed available