The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) officially opened the new Singapore Air Traffic Control Centre (SATCC), built to supplement the increasing demand for regional air traffic, at the Singapore Airshow Aviation Summit Lunch on Feb. 10.
The highlight of the new SATCC is its $300 million, state-of-the-art Long Range Radar and Display System III (LORADS III) air control system. With multi-surveillance capabilities, LORADS III allows air traffic controllers to track up to 2,000 planes at any one time, within a distance of 500 nautical miles.
Compare this to Singapore’s previous system, LORADS II, which could only track half the number of planes at 500, and within a smaller distance of 250 nautical miles.
So far, 300 air traffic controllers have been trained by CAAS to operate LORADS III at its academy. The company plans to recruit another 80 controllers by the end of 2014.
Singapore’s aviation sector is forecasted to grow at a rate of five percent yearly, until 2020.
Photo: Air traffic control officers working in the new SATCC; CAAS Facebook
Source: TODAY
