Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions taking next step as provider of air traffic control services

Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions (SDATS) has been certified by the Swedish Transport Agency as a provider of air traffic services. Certification entails that SDATS can conduct digital air traffic control within the EU.

“SDATS becoming a certified supplier of digital air traffic control services means that we can enable more airports in Sweden and the EU to move up to the next generation of air traffic control,” says Per Ahl, CEO for SDATS. “We’re supporting our customers with technical product deliveries, operational expertise and services.”

Since 1 January 2019, SDATS has remotely operated the RTC Sundsvall control centre for air traffic control. Commissioning of Örnsköldsvik Airport was followed by Sundsvall Timrå Airport in December 2017, and beginning in 2019, air traffic control at both Linköping/Saab Airport and Scandinavian Mountains Airport in Sälen will be conducted remotely from Sundsvall.

The digital air traffic control tower is a breakthrough in air traffic control and was introduced during 2015 in Sweden when Örnsköldsvik Airport became the first airport in the world with remote air traffic control. The technology entails that a digital air traffic control tower replaces the conventional air traffic control tower with a camera pylon to reproduce the view from the tower and transfer it to a manned digital air traffic control centre at another location. Installing a digital air traffic control tower is often more economical than building a new tower or upgrading a conventional air traffic control tower.