Andrzej Jeziorski/FRANKFURT
T HE GERMAN AIR-traffic- services agency Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) is to close down three of its six radar centres by the year 2000 as part of the agency's efficiency drive.
No decision has yet been made about which centres are to go, says DFS chairman Dieter Kaden, but the decision will be made by the beginning of 1997. DFS now operates radar control centres at Berlin, Bremen, Dsseldorf, Langen, Karlsruhe and Munich.
Investigations into the restructuring of the agency began in 1995 and have not yet been completed, says Kaden. DFS is to introduce its new P1 flight-plan processing system into all its control centres by 2000. To date, Langen is the only centre which has been equipped.
"It is obvious that the number of control centres which have to be equipped is also decisive for the pace of the progress that can be achieved: a reduction in quantity will lead to an increase in quality," says Kaden.
The agency has reduced staff numbers by 400 to 4,850 over the last 18 months, to cut costs. "However -we have to be careful not to incur manpower deficits. For this reason, we will again increase the number of air-traffic-control [ATC] trainees in the next two years," says Kaden.
DFS closed its 1995 business year with a DM18.3 million ($12 million) profit on a turnover of DM1.32 billion. By comparison, the agency made a profit of DM6.23 million on an equal turnover in 1994. A 2.4% increase in air traffic took the number of flights guided by German controllers past 2 million for the first time.
The agency says that it also managed to decrease the number of air misses from 33 in 1994 to 23 in 1995, with the number of ATC-related incidents dropping from 13 to 4. At the start of 1996, DFS reduced its route charges by 3.5%, raising terminal charges by 0.5%.
"Considering the inflation rate of 1.8%, this rise corresponds to a reduction by 0.5% in real terms," says DFS. The agency promises further rate cuts in 1997.
Source: Flight International
