29th January 2020
HIAL announced its plans to introduce a remote tower air traffic management system (ATMS) in January 2018 and since then HIAL staff, the Unions and key stakeholder groups have been kept informed on all aspects of the review from its inception. In October 2019, the HIAL Board gave authority to seek funding from Scottish Government to progress the ATMS programme. Following approval from Scottish Government, a Business Case was approved by the Board in December, along with a number of specific recommendations. The strategic programme decisions made by the Board moves HIAL into the implementation phase of the ATMS project and will allow detailed operational decisions to be made.
The key decisions covered:
Purchase of New Century House for the Combined Surveillance Centre
Airspace and Surveillance Options
Sumburgh Approach Radar Service
Air Traffic Service (ATS) Training
Air Traffic Service provision at Benbecula and Wick John O’Groats
Dundee ATC position in ATMS Transition Plan
Operational/People Transition plan
To ensure all staff and stakeholders were aware of the strategic decisions made by the Board, a concentrated programme of local engagement events were undertaken from 17th to 22nd January. These sessions were the start of the next phase of our ongoing engagement programme to ensure our staff, stakeholders and partners are kept up-to-date and able to input their views as we move forward with the programme.
The sessions were not detailed technical briefings but generated honest feedback and questions. The feedback helps us enormously and will allow us to direct our ongoing engagement as we seek input from staff, stakeholders and partners.
We have compiled questions from the different sessions and have included these in the Air Traffic Management Strategy area of the website.
