A small airport in Sweden, as well as a few others, including one in the U.S., are testing taking the air traffic controllers out of the tower, leaving robot cameras to send images to controllers working far away. The idea, ultimately, is to allow small airports to share a control center and reduce cost.
Ornskoldsvik Airport in northern Sweden is the guinea pig. It's been serving 80,000 passengers a year, and is the only practical way to Stockholm...but it has cost over $1 million a year in wages and benefits alone. For the moment, that cost won't change but if, in future, the controller group can cover other small airports, savings are possible. Or, air traffic control could be added to airports too small now to have it.
Ultimately, even for large airports, it could move the control room from atop a huge tower to a ground-based room with a simple mast to hold the cameras. Other cameras and sensors at ground level could watch for animals and obstructions.
Oh, and the human factor: Aircraft sounds are piped in to maintain the atmostphere, and some of the controllers, watching the field on 55-inch screens, still reach for their binoculars when something's happening on a remote part of the field
Full coverage HERE in USA Today. Photo: Saab AB
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