The ability to provide air traffic services from a remote location is relevant in all operating environments either it is airport, TMA, extended TMA (E-TMA) or en-route.
In TMA, extended TMA and en-route environments, the virtual centre concept allows a geographical sector to be managed from anyplace subject to the availability of some services crucial for the provision of ATS, namely, CNS, MET, AIS and all data related to the flight plan. By using standardised operating methods, procedures and technical equipment, the service will be perceived as a unique system from the user’s perspective. It will be enabled by cloud-based data centres as well as data-processes management and governance remotely provided.
In airport environment, the remote tower concept support several use cases that allow the provision of air traffic services from a remote tower centre (RTC), with a dynamic allocation of a number of physical aerodromes to remote tower modules (RTM). It brings new alternatives in the provision of tower related ATS and in some cases benefits on ANS costs. The integration of approach services to these airports through a remote virtual centre is also possible. Some solutions are already in deployment and R&D is continuing on more complex use cases.