The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has commissioned an advanced automated air traffic management system at Mangalore International Airport with the approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), according to the director of the airport J.T. Radhakrishna.
It replaces the old less automated air traffic management system to enhance the overall safety of air traffic control operations at the airport, he said.
Safety assessment and extensive trial operations have been done before commissioning the system from INDRA, SPAIN, the director said.
The advanced system is called AIRCON-2100. It met International Civil Aviation Organisation’s standard and recommended practices in air traffic management. It enhanced the safety of flights by providing the air traffic controllers with information of air movements from radar, flight plans, direction finders and air-ground-data link messages. The system is capable of processing data from other radar feeds such as those from Bangalore, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and display them at Mangalore to increase the area of radar coverage, according to a press release.
The control tools in the system assisted an air traffic controller in decision-making and judgment for safe handling of traffic. The controllers get warning whenever the safety of aircraft is going to be infringed – collision with another aircraft, terrain proximity, heading towards danger/prohibited area and deviation from cleared level/route.
Hajj operations from Saturday
The flights for Hajj would depart from the airport at 3.30 a.m. daily from September 7 to September 12. The Hajj camp has been set up at the old terminal building.
Pilgrims would be taken to the new terminal building by bus. In all, 980 pilgrims would depart for the yatra from the airport. They are from Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Kodagu, Chikmagalur and Hassan districts.
