26.08.2003
Millions of kroner to be spent on sophisticated surface movement radar system

Aircraft must be monitored not only every single second they are in the air. Monitoring them constantly – also when they are on the runways and taxiways – is crucial to airport safety.

This is the backdrop for Copenhagen Airports’ decision to spend 30 to 40 million Danish kroner on a sophisticated new surface movement radar system over the next few years. The new system will monitor the movements of each aircraft on the ground in the airport – and later also the movements of cars and other vehicles.

The airport already has a surface movement radar system, but the new system will further improve safety.

Copenhagen Airports A/S has just signed a contract with Dutch company Hitt, one of the world’s leading suppliers of this kind of equipment. The airport has already begun implementing the expensive and technically complicated project, and the first part of the modern system will be brought online in early 2005.

Sophisticated system

The new surface movement radar to be implemented at Copenhagen Airport is particularly sophisticated because it not only registers aircraft in the form of blips on a radar screen; any aircraft moving on the ground at the airport is also identified by its number, airline and aircraft type. The air traffic controllers will then be able to read directly on their radar screens the identity and location of all aircraft in the airport area.

In the second phase of the project, all cars moving in the airport area will be equipped with a so-called “transponder” – i.e. a transmitter – so that also cars can be identified and followed metre by metre on the surface movement radar system when they move around in the airport area. The idea is to avoid situations where cars suddenly drive onto runways or taxiways – so-called ‘runway incursions’,” says vice president and head of the Copenhagen Airports Traffic Department  Hans Christian Stigaard.

The new radar system will automatically detect it if a vehicle goes astray and immediately set off an alarm. The radar system will also be able to work together with a coming electronic approach system to allow the surface movement radar system computer to automatically receive all data on approaching (or departing) aircraft, and then automatically monitor the aircraft once it is on the ground. Again, the system will set off an alarm if the aircraft is not moving in the right direction. In the longer term, the new surface movement radar system will make it possible to monitor every single aircraft – and vehicle – all the way into the apron areas where aircraft park.

Copenhagen Airports A/S has decided to implement the system in two phases so far: the first phase in April 2005 and the second phase a year later.