Airways New Zealand is to replace its current air traffic management platforms in a $58 million project spanning the next four years
The state-owned enterprise has awarded a contract to global science and technology company Leidos to collaborate on software development and the LeidosSkyline X system, which will replace Airways’ two existing ATM platforms that were installed between 2000 and 2003.
The system is expected to become operational in New Zealand’s domestic airspace in 2020 and in oceanic airspace in 2021.
Chief Operating Officer Pauline Lamb says the new system will allow Airways to implement a new operating model as well as take advantage of advances in tools to optimise the air traffic system and staff deployment.
“By 2020 the new platform will allow airspace sectors to be operated from two new air traffic control centres in Auckland and Christchurch, in addition to 19 control towers nationwide,” Lamb explains. “The aim is to deliver enhanced safety and tangible benefits to airline and airport customers in the long-term.”
The development of the system will be a collaborative project between Leidos and Airways’ software development teams, with Airways purchasing the hardware and installing and testing the system.
This successful partnership model previously saved Airways’ customers around $2.6 million per year or $36 million across the life of the current ATM platform.
Air traffic is forecast to grow by 50 per cent over the next decade, Leidos Civil Group President Angie Heise observes. “Technology enhancements in Skyline X include efficiencies enabled by the introduction of world-class flow management capabilities, as well as an integrated approach that enables a vision for a single system to support tower, terminal, en route and oceanic control operations.”
Airways and Leidos will continue to support and enhance the system over a fifteen-year period, once it becomes operational.
