New system for air traffic control in use at airport

IT and Investments Minister Austin Gatt was yesterday shown around the two new state-of-the-art systems, costing around Lm300,000, that have been operating at Malta Air Traffic Services since September.

The systems to control air traffic are part of a Lm1 million project which involves the replacement of the secondary Dingli radar, carried out last year and OLDI, On-Line Data Interchange, which eliminates the need for voice messaging to control air traffic. The system gives access to radar data from Kithira in Greece, covering the eastern part of the air space near Crete.

Anthony Seychell, MATS executive aerodrome and safety, said one of the advantages of the system was that data on air flight position and the level of the aircraft could now be obtained.

OLDI was installed at the beginning of the year and training has been ongoing, while talks on the Kithira radar started three years ago.

Other projects at MATS, which employs around 50 air traffic controllers, four of whom are women, include the building of new workshops and infrastructural works.

Dr Gatt described the operation at MATS as "impressive". He said the systems were developed with the input of Maltese design and skills and that other countries were looking to the Maltese model of the systems implementation.

"MATS has met its technological challenges and is an example for others," he said.

Other future challenges lay in the fact that countries such as Tunisia, Libya and Morocco could be increasing their traffic in Malta's flight region, which would mean more work. He said the Open Skies Directive, being discussed in the EU, could prove to be problematic and challenging, meaning not only more competition, but also the need to totally change its systems.

MATS would have to restructure, but had already shown that it was capable of doing so, the minister said.