Coimbatore International Airport becomes the second airport in Tamil Nadu to get a state-of-the-art advanced Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B). This can track aircraft as far as 200 nautical miles away from the airport. The facility was inaugurated by Air Navigation Services (ANS) Member V. Somasundaram on Friday. He said that the existing conventional method of surveillance to spot the altitude and distance of the aircraft from the airport is done based on the conversation between the pilots and personnel at the air traffic control.
This was because the conventional method had limitations such as ability to spot the flights digitally only when they were about one nautical mile from landing and about four nautical miles from take off. The ADS-B reduces gap between landing and take off of flights.
“Conventionally it takes nine minutes between two landing flights. It is now reduced to three minutes and could be reduced to a minute in the long run,” Mr. Somasundaram said. This will help airlines and commuters save time when more flights connect the city. It also helps save fuel and reduce pollution, he said. Other advantages of the ADS-B over the conventional tracking mode are increased accuracy in spotting the flight in terms of distance and altitude, monitoring the path of the flights and their deviation if any from their path or altitude.
Cost
“While a radar costs Rs. 10 crore to 12 crore, ADS-B costs around Rs. 1 crore and is more advanced ,” he said.
Airports Authority of India is trying to integrate data available with Cochin airport radar and Sulur unit of the Indian Air Force for getting a wider area of coverage under automatic surveillance. “We have finalised proceedings with Cochin and are holding talks with the Air Force officials at Sulur,” Mr. Somasundaram said.
The ANS member added that the integration is expected to be completed in a couple of months.
“On doing so, the airport will receive data from as far as 400 nautical miles from the Coimbatore airport with the additional 200 nautical miles coverage of Cochin,” he said. Linking up with the Sulur facility will serve as a backup for the ADS-B at the airport here.
Southern Region General Manager (Air Traffic Management) Sylvester Israel, the Director of Coimbatore International Airport G. Prakash Reddy and airport officials were present during the launch of the advanced surveillance system. The facility was recently launched at the Tiruchirapalli International Airport.
