PHL gets P160-M air traffic management upgrade

The Philippines expects to improve its capability to manage air traffic with the inauguration of its upgraded Eurocat computerized air management system, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said Tuesday.

 

CAAP said the upgraded system, which can manage arriving and departing air traffic from as far as 250 nautical miles, replaces the one in place as early as 1996.

 

It said the upgrade cost P159.9 million.

 

"The improvement is essential for CAAP because the P13-billion next-generation satellite-based Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) project that was signed during the previous administration was delayed and would not be in place until the end of 2016," it said.

 

Adopting the CNS/ATM technology program will put the country at par with the rest of the world, CAAP said.

 

CNS/ATM has aircraft transponders receive satellite signals and use transponder transmissions to determine the precise locations of aircraft.

 

It said CNS/ATM technologies include a computer-based flight data processing system that will let aircraft operators meet their planned times of departure and arrival.

 

The system will also let them adhere to their preferred flight profiles with minimum constraints and without compromising levels of safety.

 

Before upgrade

 

Before the upgrade, CAAP said flights at the NAIA wspecially during rainy weather were affected by continuous outages.

 

Such outages led to flight cancellations or diversions since the aging system "outlived its life span for over 19 years and parts are already obsolete and unavailable for replacement."

 

CAAP said the upgrade was done with Thales Australia and Pacific Hemisphere Development. —Joel Locsin/NB, GMA News