The much-debated project where air traffic control at Åre/Östersund, Umeå, Kiruna and Malmö airports will be remotely controlled from Arlanda now looks set to be significantly delayed.

According to the original plan, remote control was to be put into operation in 2020, but that will not happen. Now the plan is for Kiruna, which is the first to go, to switch to remote control sometime in the first quarter of 2021. 

Åre/Östersund is the second airport to be connected, but the Civil Aviation Administration cannot say exactly when this will happen at the moment. The intention is that it will happen in 2021.

Complex project

Ever since the decision to use remote control in the fall of 2017, the project has been criticized from many quarters. Safety has been questioned and the costs of the project have also skyrocketed.

However, the delays have nothing to do with safety, according to Ulf Thibblin, technical director at the Civil Aviation Administration.

– No, it has nothing to do with safety, but rather the overall complexity of the project that has created the delay.

Ulf Thibblin does not want to go into how much the delay will increase the cost of the project, but refers to the fact that it is a trade secret between the Civil Aviation Administration and the customer Swedavia, which ordered the system.

Source:svt