Lockheed Martin and UK-based Bovis Construction have been named preferred bidders for the contract to provide the new Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre (SCATCC) located at Prestwick.
Scheduled to become operational in 2001/2, the SCATCC will replace the existing Prestwick centre, which controls Scottish airspace and oceanic regions over the North Sea and north Atlantic.
The decision follows the recent UK Civil Aviation Authority confirmation that it is to retain a two-centre UK air-traffic-control (ATC) system, the other being the new en route centre at Swanwick, near Southampton in southern England, which the CAA hopes to open late this year.
The SCATCC is to be privately financed and built by the consortium, which will then lease the building and its ATC systems to the CAA. It will be operated by National Air Traffic Services.
Source: Flight International
