Abu Dhabi Airport Company (ADAC) said it has signed up Frequentis, an Austrian high-tech company that develops communication and information solutions for safety-critical applications, to install a bi-directional flight plan format converter at the airport.

The ADAC move comes in line with its decision to meet the upcoming November 15 UAE government deadline for the transition to the new ICAO flight plan data formats.

As per the contract, Frequentis will equip the approach control centre at the Abu Dhabi International Airport with smartFPLconverter.

Frequentis' new FPL2012 Converter, is a flexible system that interconnects to flight data processing and flight plan handling systems available in the market using standard communication interfaces.

This allows ANSPs to conform to the Amendment 1 of ICAO 4444 in a timely and cost-effective manner, said a statement from ADAC.

It will enhance the functionality of ADAC’s existing flight data processing system by supporting the conversion to and from the new formats, the statement added.

This integration with the current system protects existing infrastructural investments and offers ADAC the flexibility needed to conform to the new standards on time and without a large expense.

With the new system, ADAC will be able to communicate with other ATM entities in both old and new formats and easily adapt formats to account for future interpretations of the new standard.-TradeArabia News Service