A radical Pacific unified

By Michael Field

PACIFIC nations are on the verge of taking a radical aviation decision and one

that is exciting industry

attention around the world.

If clearance for take-off is given all Pacific airspace over millions of square kilometres will be controlled from just one site - probably Nadi in Fiji - creating the world’s biggest seamless air traffic control system.

The International Air Transport Association (lATA) will, this month, pre sent a draft concept plan to the South Pacific Forum officials with the final report to follow a month later. Then in May Pacific Forum civil aviation ministers will discuss the proposal and, if accepted, will adopt what one lATA official told PIM would be “the ultimate air traffic control dream- the template for the rest of the world”.

If the Pacific bites the bullet, Africa and Central Asia could follow the lead. Success at this could also restore faith in the South Pacific Forum, an organisation currently given to pressing world economy agendas on hard-pressed states. A Forum unified airspace would be a proposition equal to the Forum Shipping Line or the Forum Fisheries Agency.

Airlines welcome the proposition as bringing air traffic control to the level of sophistication that their planes already have. “We are reasonably optimistic that it will happen, the decision has already real ly been taken,” Association of South Pacific Airlines (ASPA) secretary general George Faktaufon told PIM.

The alternatives were unacceptable with each Pacific state claiming the right to charge individually for its upper airspace.

Both the Cook Islands and Nauru have pre viously considered this and Faktaufon said it would have been a major problem for airlines.

At the centre of the proposal is the upper air space, defined as anything above 7431 metres (24,500 feet) which used to be as high as turbo prop aircraft could reach.

Movement through the Flight Information Regions (FIR) are controlled in the Pacific by centres in Oakland, California, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and French Polynesia.

Already there is some cross-fertilisa tion; the upper airspace over New Caledonia and American Samoa is the responsibility of Nadi while the Solomon Islands has just signed a temporary con tract for control of its upper air space with Airservices Australia using their powerful new The Australian Advanced Air Traffic

For airlines flying the

Pacific or to Asia,

the multiple FIRs create

inefficiencies and greater

costs. They also tend to

reflect the lowest

common denominator in

technology - paradoxical

ly, that is in Oakland

where controllers still

control flights of the

Oceanic region by writing

on bits of paper and

passing them around.

System (TAAATS). Pacific states are fac ing the prospect of major new investments in Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) as old fashioned ground sys tems try to catch up with sophisticated air lines that are plugged into satellites.

For airlines flying the Pacific or to Asia, the multiple FIRs create inefficiencies and greater costs. They also tend to reflect the lowest common denominator in technolo gy - paradoxically, that is in Oakland where controllers still control flights of the Oceanic region by writing on bits of paper and passing them around.

In May last year forum aviation offi cials adopted an action plan that recog nised new technologies which presented “opportunities for considerable efficiencies I

in airplane operations, with potential flow on benefits to Forum member economies”.

They called for Pacific airspace to be man

aged “co-operatively, efficiently and safely

as a unified airspace” and called on lATA to report on the concept.

In the meantime the ministers agreed to a moratorium on the acquisition of further CNS/ATM facilities. Orient Aviation, pro duced by the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines, in its December issue paints the proposal as a watershed decision with Pacific Island nations reclaiming control of their airspace.

They focused on the way the proposal, if carried out, would slash into the authori ty of the US Oceanic Centre at Oakland that, due to cost cutting', is using almost ancient technology to run its operation.

The US Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) is known to be unhappy with the proposal, not only for the loss of Pacific influence but because it will lose jobs and revenue.

An FAA official is serving on the lATA review. The Pacific operation would take Micronesia, including Guam, out of Oakland and into the new regional opera tion.

Unclear at this point is the attitude of France that has a FIR centre in French Polynesia. The director of the French Polynesian FIR, Guy Yeung, told PIM that they were not in the process of integrating their operation into a new Pacific service.

“We have not made an decision on the future of the FIR,” he said. However the French decision is more political than tech nical and will be made in Paris, rather than in Papeete.

For airlines the gains would be in uni form charging, improved operational effi ciency and profitability. Because of the problems with Oakland, for example, air craft flying from the US to Australia, New Zealand or Fiji needs to have 10 minutes minimum separation between them. But with satellite geostationary position sys tems aircraft accurately know where they are and can have tighter separation. Last year the US tried to get airlines to pay for going through their Oceanic Airspace, even though the airlines were not even fly

ing to the US. This affected airlines flying between China and Japan and Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Under the new pro posal airlines would still have to pay user fees, but the money would go into the region, rather than the US.

If the forum meeting in Palau later this year adopts the plan the battle would be on between likely suppliers. New Zealand’s Airways Corporation is believed to be active in touting its system, although through the summer their key officials went to the beach.

State owned Airservices Australia is, however, touting its TAAATS operation that by the end of the year will run Australia’s air traffic control from one cen tre. Both Australia and New Zealand sys tems are built around French hardware. In

theory, Airservices spokesman Richard

Dudley agreed, TAAATS could easily han dle the entire South Pacific too. But they needed to be sensitive to the needs of

Pacific states that would want to be involved in some way in the operation, although the proposal does not effect the lower airspace which is still controlled by individual states. While Airservices has not put up a formal proposition to the Forum, they did make a submission to last year’s

Airlines welcome the

proposition as bringing

air traffic control to the

level of sophistication

their planes already have

Civil Aviation Minister’s meeting. From this it appears likely that should a unified system be set up, it would go into Nadi. In January, in an unrelated move but with implications to any new system, Nadi and Airservices successfully tested a new com puter data air traffic control exchange trial that showed it was possible to safely send

information in real time via computer.

Dudley said they had a high degree of confidence in TAAATS and believed it would be ideal for a Pacific ATM.

What will attract Pacific states too is that any new system would be relatively cheap to install, although lATA is believed to be very concerned at the high cost of state controlled monopoly telecommunica tions in the Pacific. This radically affects the economics of any unified system that is dependent on telecoms. ASPA’s Faktaufon said they would want some kind of politi cal and commercial instrument to avoid monopoly control over flight information Pacific wide. A unified system would be cheaper for the airlines and would produce surplus revenue in the region to enhance air travel and communications. The deci sion by aviation ministers was the signal the unified system was going to happen , with the only uncertainty whether the indi vidual states will have to ratify it. ■