The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the UAE has recently commenced operations in the new Dh300 million ($82 million) Sheikh Zayed Centre for air traffic movement at the Abu Dhabi International Airport.

The project is considered the largest and most advanced air traffic management facility in the Middle East.

“We are pleased to announce that we have completed moving the air traffic department to the new centre which is intended to provide safe and efficient handling of air traffic until 2010,” said Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi, director general of GCAA.

Sheikh Zayed Centre comprises two main buildings – the air traffic control centre building (ACC) and the emergency ACC – each of which has been designed to satisfy a range of operational requirements.

Also featuring on the site are four unique design 60 metre masts for the communications equipment antennas providing a blend of aesthetic quality with practical application. The centre considered autonomous for power providing four levels of fallback from prime power for the main air traffic centre (ATC) equipment.

The main ACC building has a 600 sq mt ATC room with sufficient sector suites with the latest technology to accommodate traffic growth for 20 years or a total traffic volume exceeding two million annual movements.

The centre features new equipment such as ATM display system, ARTAS and AMHS from Comsoft, while integrated voice communication is supplied by Park Air Systems and the Micro Nav ATC simulator, being installed in the Emergency ACC.

Sheikh Zayed Centre has a total of 76 working positions for live ACC, military liaison and emergency cum training roles. This represents a tripling of current capacity.

The ATM system permits flexible sectorisation to task individual air traffic controllers in the most safe and efficient manner and with a number of modern tools such as arrival and stack managers as ell as medium term conflict detection to optimize traffic handling.

The GCAA is considered the pioneer in areas such as integration of ADS-B in the surveillance picture through the ARTAS tracker, design and operational implementation of RNAV 1 routes both for en-route and in-terminal environments.

Together, these modernisation programmes serve to alleviate traffic congestion, minimise delays, shorten routes and create the capacity necessary for sustained growth in air traffic necessary for the economic well-being of the country. – TradeArabia News Service