Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial) hopes to buy air traffic control simulator to help train staff ahead of centralisation of operations at New Century House in Inverness
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Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial) is hoping to buy a simulator to help train air traffic controllers ahead of plans to centralise the operation in Inverness.
The equipment would also be used to assist with research and development of the new set-up which will be based at New Century House in the Highland capital.
Tenders for the simulator have been issued via the Public Contracts Scotland website stating that it should enable new procedures to be worked up and tested, permit camera location positions to be modelled and demonstrate the ability to use multi-runway operations.
A Hial spokesman said: “The air traffic simulator will help develop radar approach procedures and the delivery of training as we move towards the implementation of approach radar services at Sumburgh airport in Shetland.
“Additionally, it will allow us to deliver surveillance-based training and airspace modelling at other Hial airports.
“Prior to putting the contract to tender we worked with Hial colleagues to identify the requirements needed to develop a full training programme for air traffic control staff. The simulator’s role in remote tower delivery will be determined as the project progresses.”
The centralisation plans are part of a wider £28 million plan to deliver a remote aircraft monitoring system.
New tower technology will be installed at Dundee, Inverness, Kirkwall, Sumburgh and Stornoway airports, all controlled by staff in Inverness.
Highlands and Islands MSP Rhoda Grant has previously been critical of the centralisation project.
She said: "There is the possibility that equipment could be used to train staff on the use of radar, however it would appear that this equipment is required for implementing remote towers and the damaging centralisation plan which Hial is stubbornly pushing ahead with.
"It is disappointing that Hial refuses to listen to other options and, indeed, to the needs of the communities it should be serving. They continue to squander public money on an untested system that will ultimately damage the economy of the islands.
"While I would normally welcome investment into staff training and opportunities, the contract to purchase a simulator, and the small fortune that has been spent on this plan to date, are evidence that Hial is determined to push the air traffic management plan through no matter what objections are made, what consultations are still outstanding and despite the ongoing lack of an Islands Impact Assessment.”
