The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has been awarded a prestigious EU Single European Sky Award for the success of its recent Remote Tower trials at Shannon and Cork airports.
The announcement was made by Violeta Bulc, EU Commissioner for Transport and Henrik Hololei, European Commission Director General at DG MOVE at a ceremony held on 7 March during the World ATM Congress in Madrid.
The IAA has successfully completed operational trials on remote tower technology.
In 2016, the IAA, along with a consortium of stakeholders, validated the SESAR JU concept of remote tower technology through a series of operational trials (based on over 50 demonstrations). These highly successful trials built upon the experience of single remote tower operations and validated the capability for single air traffic controller operation of multiple remote towers.
Eamonn Brennan, IAA Chief Executive said: “Air travel is expected to double in the next 20 years across the globe and I firmly believe that air traffic services have to continue to innovate. As a result of our remote tower trials, we have proved that tower services at multiple airports can be safely provided by a single air traffic controller remotely. We believe this work represents the world’s first trial of multiple tower remote operation’s by a single air traffic controller.”
He added: “The IAA has a strong tradition of being innovative to deliver cost efficiency, improved safety and higher productivity levels. With this in mind, we are delighted with the outcome of our recent Remote Tower technology trials and we extremely honoured to have secured this award from the EC. This is a great endorsement of our hard work, our findings and the great work of the IAA team.”