Gov’t upgrades NAIA’s air traffic mgm’t system

MANILA, Philippines - The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has completed a P160-million project upgrading the obsolete air traffic management system at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). 

The project that upgraded the Eurocat air traffic management system put in place in 1996 would pave the way for the P13-billion next-generation satellite-based Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) project.

The system is a computerized air traffic control and management solution that control en route, over flights, arriving, and departing air traffic from as far as 250 nautical miles.

The project was undertaken in partnership with Thales Australia and Pacific Hemisphere Development.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has agreed to give signatories such as the Philippines until 2016 to adopt the satellite-based CNS/ATM as many countries around the world have already been using it.

ICAO lifted all the remaining safety security concerns of the Philippines in early 2003 paving the way for the lifting of the ban imposed by the European Union on Philippine carriers from entering the European airspace since 2010 as well as the upgrade by the US Federal Aviation Administration (US-FAA) of the country’s aviation safety rating back to Category 1 from Category 2.

CAAP director general William Hotchkiss lll and deputy director general for operations (Ret.) Gen. Rodante Joya led the launching of the new system yesterday.

Thales Australia Limited Philippine branch manager Raymond Lions and Roger Ferrari of Pacific Hemisphere Development also attended the event at the airways facilities complex at CAAP central office in Old MIAA Road in Pasay City.

The absence of a ready substitute is a cause for worry for CAAP because if the Eurocat bogs down, the operational load of air traffic are affected and flights disruptions have an effect on the Philippine airspace.

By adopting the CNS/ATM technology program by the end of 2016, it would put the Philippines at par with the rest of the world. It works by having aircraft transponders receive satellite signals and using transponder transmissions to determine the precise locations of aircraft in the sky.

The CNS/ATM technologies include a computer-based flight data processing system that will enable aircraft operators to meet their planned times of departure and arrival and adhere to their preferred flight profiles with minimum constraints and without compromising agreed levels of safety.