Air Traffic Control question

[Dave Homewood]

I'm listening to Airplane Geeks Podcast (Episode 368) and in the news items they were discussing how new trials are being undertaken to have the airspace and ground movements of certain airports controlled remotely by ATC personnel in a tower at a whole different airport via video links. This is considered cost effective so new towers don't need to be built and all the staff work in a central tower.

I might be way off the mark here, and probably misinformed, but hasn't this been happening here in New Zealand for years? Isn't for example the airspace around Ardmore monitored by staff at the tower in Mangere - with Ardmore's tower having been closed down years ago by budget cuts? I am I wrong?

[ruakituri]

Hi. Totally different, this has never occurred before here in NZ. It is called Airways Lite. This is remote control tower operation. This is different to Ardmore. No controlling there at all, AA approach and tower get returns on traffic at Ardmore, on their radar plot but that's all. I hope this helps.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks for clearing this up.

[lindstrim]

I think the closest to NZ that this happens is in Alice Springs?

[sqwark2k]

Woodbourne is probably the closest thing to Dave's original post. The Woodbourne controllers used to control all movements at Omaka as aircraft there took off into controlled airspace. They now have an uncontrolled transit layer up to 1500' where OM pilots don't have to talk to WB Tower unless they want to operate higher than 1500' . Pretty good setup considering the 2.6Nm separation between runways.

[slackie]

Don't even get me started on "Airways Lite"... peanuts and cola might work for budget airlines but it has no place in safety!