Fiji Airports in $7M Air Navigation System Upgrade
Fiji Airports is currently working on upgrading its air navigation from a procedural to surveillance system, an exercise which will cost around $7 million dollars.
This was revealed by the Executive Chairman for Fiji Airports, Faiz Khan while speaking at the 32nd Informal South Pacific Air Traffic Services Co-ordinating Group Forum in Nadi yesterday.
“This is to provide better services to the airlines because through surveillance we can give on-time data to the airlines and also to improve and enhance safety standards and to reduce separation,” Mr Khan said.
“These are things that our airlines as our customers are looking forward to from us as service providers. So we are continuously working on improving our air traffic management (ATM) and air navigation services.”
Mr Khan said the key industry players in aviation are the airlines, civil aviation authority as the regulator and the air navigation service providers.
“So Fiji Airports plays a major role as the air navigation service provider,” he added. Chairman for Future Air Navigation Services (FANS), Brad Cornell commended Airports Fiji for their progress over the past decades.
“I’ve been coming to Fiji for the last 20 years and the progress here has been remarkable,” Mr Cornell said.
“We started the technology in the South Pacific and Fiji was one of the early adopters and this technology is now used around the world.
Fiji Airports is responsible for the operation of 15 public airports in Fiji, which also includes the two international airports in Nadi and Nausori.
It also provides air traffic management (ATM) in the Nadi Flight Information Region.
This includes Fiji, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Kiribati and Vanuatu air space.
Aviation Experts
Forty top aviation experts across the region have gathered in a four-day meeting to discuss ways to tackle challenges faced by air navigation service providers within the region.
Mr Khan said they needed to tackle the challenges in a collaborative approach.
The meeting also included United States Federal Aviation Administration, Air Services Australia, Airways New Zealand as well as aircraft manufacturing giants Airbus and Boeing. Mr Khan added the meeting provided an ideal platform to discuss challenges facing the air navigation service providers across the region.
The ISPACG provides an informal forum to foster relationships and to build networks with other air navigation service providers. “The purpose of ISPACG is to promote a cost effective South Pacific Air Traffic Services aviation environment that is responsive to change, meets the needs of the aviation industry, is economically sustainable and maintains or enhances present levels of safety,” he said.
Mr Khan said the meeting included air navigation service providers and aviation regulators from Australia, Chile, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Tahiti, USA and Fiji.
Future Air Navigation Services Chairman, Brad Cornell said they would get together to solve some of the technical problems with dealing with communication lanes with the airplane and the air traffic controllers.