About this exercise:

A shadow mode trial planned at Saarbrücken airport will assess the basic functionalities needed to provide air traffic control remotely to an airport with low-to-medium density traffic (e.g. 20,000 movements a year or less). The trial will assess whether the Remote Tower concept, which was validated in Release 3 a several Scandinavian airports, can be applied to the remote control of traffic in a medium traffic density airport environment in Germany.

A second shadow mode trial at Röst airport and Vaeröy Heliport will validate the feasibility of providing simultaneous air traffic services to multiple remote aerodromes by a single operator. The trial will assess, in a variety of conditions, how the use of a remote tower for multiple locations can affect service provision, safety and aerodrome and ATCO efficiency.

Expected outcomes:

• Identification of a core set of functionalities needed to provide air traffic control to airports with small-to-medium sized traffic density.
• Improved traffic handling capacity, in the case of bad weather conditions, and a more efficient use of human resources.