Small airports often don't have much
air traffic because they lack of adequate tower system. The world's first remotely controlled
airport in northeastern Sweden is now operational and the system may adopted by other countries soon as well.
According to Sweden's radio report, We are so thankful to Remote Tower Services (RTS) system, the first plane landed last week at Örnsköldsvik Airport in the northeast of Sweden, but it was
controlled from the LFV Remote Tower Centre 123 km (76 mi) away in
Sundsvall.
Air traffic controllers for Örnsköldsvik now sit in a
computer simulated room at the larger Sundsvall airport surrounded by
giant television screens beaming footage to them of Örnsköldsvik’s
incoming planes.
Instead of a people, the air traffic control tower has microphones,
cameras and sensors which send information to an air traffic control
station 180 kilometers to the south. Now we can land planes via remote control from an airport sitting
100km away.
The Swedish RTC has been approved to direct air traffic for two remote
airports in Sweden, with full operation expected to begin in autumn this
year.
Theoretically the system allows smaller airports to upgrade their
towers and by efficiently grouping multiple airfields together in one
remote control center, airfields can avoid limiting flights or closing
completely.
Australia and Norway are also in the process of testing the Saab system,
with Norway slated to begin use soon. The Landvetter Airport in Sweden,
the second largest in the country, has begun testing the system for
something slightly different – in the case of an emergency, a remote
tower could provide contingency operations, avoiding a forced closure or
reduced capacity of the airport.
Source: Saab
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