The German air-navigation service (DFS) has announced plans to integrate radar control in central Germany around a new control centre at Langen, near Frankfurt. It is hoped that the new centre, ireplacing current units at Düsseldorf and Frankfurt, will come into service in 2000.
This is the first move towards consolidating German air-traffic control from six to three radar centres, covering the northern, central and southern regions. This optimisation will "form the basis for further reductions of air-traffic- control charges", says the DFS.
The Langen control centre is being equipped with new-generation technology, which will also be introduced at the other centres.
Once Langen is established, it will be followed by the integration of the Berlin Tempelhof control centre into the centre at Bremen, and then the integration of radar control of south German airspace into either Karlsruhe or Munich. The Bremen centre will not be established before 2003, and a decision on the location of the south German control centre will not be taken before 1999.
The location depends on a political decision, expected at the beginning of 1999, as to whether the European control centre in Maastricht, which now controls the upper airspace over north Germany, will in future control the whole of the country.
If Maastricht keeps control of the north only, south Germany's airspace will be controlled from Karlsruhe, which is already equipped for the task. Otherwise, the centre will be located in Munich. The integration of south German radar coverage will not happen before 2005, says the DFS.
Source: Flight International