David Learmount/LONDON
Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management has won a significant UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS) contract. The deal virtually confirms that it will win the work to build and equip the new Scottish air traffic control centre.
The $7 million contract provides a much-needed interim equipment update for the Prestwick centre. NATS admits the planned New Scottish Centre (NSC) is "a six-year project" that has still not been given the go-ahead. Prestwick controllers will get new radar displays and a SkyLine radar data processing system for the Scottish flight information region.
Lockheed Martin says the contract "should lead on to greater things". The Lockheed Martin-led Sky Solutions consortium has long been confirmed as the preferred bidder for the NSC contract, but complex renegotiation of the deal continues. This follows the UK Government's radical change of ATC financing policy. The NSC was to have been built under a private finance initiative (PFI), where NATS would operate the centre, but would lease it from Sky Solutions. With NATS to be partially privatised in a "public private partnership", for which enabling legislation is before parliament, NATS would own and operate the NSC. NATS says the renegotiation is about "unbundling" the PFI contract without incurring penalties.
• German air traffic control organisation DFS has inaugurated its new DM350 million ($184 million) radar control centre at Langen near Frankfurt after a three-year delay caused by software integration problems. The centre, which began operations on 23 December, is due to be fully commissioned by early February. It will handle terminal and en route traffic up to 24,500ft (7,470m) in the busy Frankfurt flight information region, controlled by Frankfurt Airport's air traffic control centre.
Source: Flight International
