The Remote Towers Concept

The concept of Remote Towers where the air traffic service (ATS) to an airport or aerodrome is performed at a location other than the airport tower or aerodrome receiving the service has existed for many years. However, turning the concept into reality is very recent and this has been very limited with respect to size and complexity of the operation and thus the scale of the service provided.

 The primary driver for remote towers is to improve cost effectiveness of the provision of the ATS. The idea is that remote ATS facilities will be cheaper to maintain, able to operate for longer periods and enable lower staffing costs (through centralised resource pools) and training/re-training costs, by large scale effects It will also significantly reduce the requirement to operate and maintain actual control tower buildings and infrastructure, leading to further cost savings, as well as eliminating the need to build replacement towers.

 The term Remote Towers will mean different things to different stakeholders depending on the benefits perceived and/or how the implementation affects people. This Prospect ATSS Branch Position Paper on Remote Tower Operations has been drawn up in order to help to inform stakeholders on issues relating to implementation of the concept of remote towers as seen by Prospect ATSS branch. The paper draws on information in the public domain (e.g. economic benefits of remote towers) and highlights issues from a technical (engineering) and professional/social viewpoint (focusing on engineering personnel).