Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study

Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study


03-02-2010, 05:26 PM


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Post: #1
Title: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:26 PM

IN THE LOVING MEMORY OF
USTAZ Alsir Hassan Basheer
Ustaz ALtayeb Abdalaleem
Ustaz Maysara Ibrahim Jaldon
Ms. Isis Moneer Farag
Ustaz Yagoub Abadeer


And for those who thought me about aviation


USTAZ Mohamed Marghani Mohamed
Ustaz Abdulgadeir Aljack
Ustaz Teejani H. Abozaid
Ustaz Abdulkarim Abdulateef
Ustaz Awad Alkareem Ibrahim
Ustaz Mohamed Ibrahim Kambal

for the sole of
Momaed Lhassan Aboswar
Lupoka Wilson Keney

Abdo Alhussain Altom

Post: #2
Title: Re: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:28 PM
Parent: #1

(Today, with the new technology, especially satellite navigation, we are no longer dependent on ground-based navigation aids, so commercial aircraft no longer need to make frequent contact with the ground; ATNS believes that Africa needs just three sectors to manage most of the continent’s upper airspace – these would be West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa)
Dr Johan van Vollenhoven.
CEO South African Air Traffic and Navigation Service (ATNS)

Post: #3
Title: Re: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:29 PM
Parent: #2

Adopting the new air laws that recently passed by the Sudanese parliament , the Civil aviation in Sudan jumped a giant step towards a much needed new era in revamping the civil aviation industry as a whole and in particularly in the field of air traffic control and its system .
The Sudanese Air Traffic Control system established in 1954 followed the British commonwealth foot steps in all aspects became one of the pioneers in its efficiency and adherence to the ICAO regulations and its recommended practice, however the development of the system itself did not move as fast as the industry march leaving a big gap in the role that Sudan can play as the safest flight path to be flown to and from Europe.
The sudan air space as big as it is consist of an important flight segment that one determined by the African political landscape due to its international alliance during the cold war era the pre-U SSR brake up were most of the European in and out traffic to Africa forced to fly Sudan Air Space and ovoid the Libyan and Ethiopian FIR s .
The Sudanese ATC system was based on advisory services and flight information services till the late 1980th where the positive ATC were introduced on the main artery airway that connect the north of the century through the Khartoum TMA till few nautical miles passed the TMA south .

The purpose of this study is to reveal the readiness of the air traffic control system to deal with the major variables, which organized this important sector and then develop plans and ambitious programs to keep pace with change through multiple viewing angles and put the security of aviation safety as a basic non-infringement on the sovereignty of the Sudan.
Looking into the current infrastructure for air navigation requirements, we find that Sudan can be classified within the acceptable providers of air traffic services and its regulations rather than to its African neighbors, despite a wider area of airspace and can recognize its efforts to upgrade its navigational equipment along the lines of international flights.
This is clearly evident from the attempts of the Civil Aviation Authority in the rehabilitation of the air navigation equipment and the upgraded to VOR/DME equipment along the international routes for the purpose of complaisance with the ICAO recommended practices set forth in PAN –NAV doc 4444 and the requirement for ground-based-area navigation and through the current attempts to update the system equipment is expanding the network of radar and radar coverage.
In light of economic pressures, the rising prices of Crude oil, and its direct effects on prices of aviation fuel has embarked the IATA and ICAO organizations to engage in economical studies related to the operating cost and lowering the expenses by revamping the old navigational methods and procedures. Prompting those in charge of this matter to seek more accurate ways and take advantage of GPS system and satellites to facilitate air navigation by keeping up with Digital technologies as an ingredient in modern aircraft, with a huge capacity and to find the most wider airspace with less complex and shortest distance.
The RNAV ground – based- navigation and GNSS, became more known and used for area navigation, however integrating these new methods into the old area navigational routes created an elapse and nearly defeated the purpose thus it became a necessity to change.
The steady progress in the field of Aviation Technologies requires Sudan- to keep pace with this evolution and its application in order for the country to play its due role in pioneering this area regionally and access for the purposes of a major challenges thus it will not be done without proper planning and broad vision through that pave the way for the big changes coming.
Since completion of the Aviation Act in 2009, which represents the spearhead in the revolution of change and the future prospects?
Infrastructure for any aviation industry begins with laying the legislation and regulations governing this vital industry as well as construction of airports and modernization of air navigation and processing apparatus which provide the required match the specifications of the ICAO.

Post: #4
Title: Re: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:30 PM
Parent: #3

The PBN challenges
The ICAO and its recent embarkation on the development of plans and programs for the regionalization of air traffic management as a prelude to the PBN ( the performance –based – navigation ) it is conceded a revolution in the air navigation requires persistent concerted efforts of all Member States to adopt this strategy to the reality of implementation.
Perhaps the geographical location of Sudan put him in a leading position in this vital project however it seems that the entire efforts led by the AFI regain had had left the country without representation at least during planning phase .
The ICAO strategy called for regionalization of the Air Traffic Control Systems by integrating adjacent FIR above the agreed upon flight levels and encouraged all the contracting states to engage in the implementation of the Global Air Navigational Plan requirement such as equipping their systems with the latest NAV. equipment such as the ADS-B and the Multi-latration matrix along with the implementing the RVSM procedures.
The Sudan Civil Aviation Authority began the process of compliance with new requirement by implementing the RVSM within Khartoum FIR , redesign its airspace to adequately avoid zigzagging routes and simplified RNAV procedures , however the attempts lacked the proper process management through a defined road map with achievable date lines and realistic short-mid- long terms objectives through the :-
• The separation of tower and approach unites
• The geographical sectors
• The ATCO rating and licensing procedures
• The red carpet after math
• The eurocat System
• The international and regional attendance
• The airspace management organization

Post: #5
Title: Re: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:30 PM
Parent: #4

The separation of tower & approach units
some of the Contracting States Separated the control tower unit from its main ATC system due to the nature of and the outweighs financial contracts of some privately owned airports using the control tower service provider private companies, either the inability of the human resources and manpower shortage or to speed up the annexation of their airports to those subject to air traffic control systems, however the status of airports, control towers, Sudan under the administrative authority of those airports is not justified technically and administratively as long as the manpower working under the direct authority of the airspace management,
The separation of the tower and approach units at t airport in Khartoum is irrational and contradict the most important objectives of air traffic control to facilitate the flow of air traffic and make it economical if only we examine the fuel consumption of each jet that directed to the stack point per day per month per year. So come to consider the importance of the restructuring of these units and the feasibility study for the affect of the separation on the air traffic controller performance in the terms of coping and speed of decision where it is proven that a tower and approach rated controller is safer to man the aerodrome tower whether in HSSS OR HSSP OR HSOB.

Post: #6
Title: Re: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:31 PM
Parent: #5

The Geographical Sectors Vs Upper & Lower Sectors
From the point of view of Air Traffic Control the airspace of a country or region are divided into sectors. Each sector is served by a team of controllers. Depending on traffic characteristics (volume, scenario, aircraft types, etc.) several sectors can be merged into one sector or work independently. When the traffic characteristics are known in advance (planned or forecasted) the problem that arises is to determine the number of open sectors during a given time period (day, week, etc.) so that the traffic requesting service can be served with an acceptable work load for the controllers. In this paper, a decision support tool based the FIR volume of traffic , traffic density, economical and optimized level flown and the numbers of air routes whether it is an RNAV or B-RNAV .
In the case of Khartoum FIR the ATC sectors are planned and implemented geographically as a North & South sectors following the flight progress.
It is widely recognized that one of the most fundamental characteristics of a problem is its computational complexity, and that understanding this complexity is an important step in the quest for devising efficient and effective algorithmic solutions for the problem .
In a recent technical report issued by the school of airspace design in Emery Riddle University and authored by a group of researchers specializing in aviation and computational geometry, stated that the 2 dimensional sectorization is proved to be efficient showed that under certain workload model, the two-dimensional (x-t) version of the airspace sectorization problem can be solved optimally in polynomial time specially after the implementation of the RVSM and that a restricted version of the problem (in which each sector is required to be an axis-aligned rectangle) is NP-hard in three or more dimensions. In this paper, we present a generic formulation for the airspace sectorization problem and give the first rigorous proof, showing that under several simple workload models (including some that are studied in so the problem in three or more dimensions is NP-hard, in general, even for several simple classes of the problem .
Therefore reconstructing Khartoum FIR based on vertical dimensions seems to be more sensible and practicable and an step for the preparation for any upcoming regionalization without affecting the entire Sudan airspace.

Post: #7
Title: Re: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:32 PM
Parent: #6

Licensing and Rating Procedures
Reconsider the process of licensing air traffic control to suit the requirements of the profession's future
For the TWR rating ATCO must poses at least three different Aerodrome TWR ratings prior final approval , this rating should include one major airport and two regional airports ,however it is allowed to posses the approach rating for those particular airports ( the major airports are HSSS/HSOB/HSFS/HSJU/HSSP/ HSNL
The radar rating must precede the radar rating however it must be specified as a separate endorsements .
The approach rating procedural can be obtain on any major airport however the main endorsement should be an HSSS endorsement (procedural and/or radar)
The En-route controller must obtain a general rating procedural and radar and then classified as:-

Area controller class C
Area controller class B
Area controller class A
Air Traffic Control specialist (shift supervisor)

Air traffic controller instructor or authorized examiner
Assistant Air Space Manager
Air Space Manager
These positions can be linked based on a gradual professional careers without having to link seniority with the availability but an equal opportunities for all must be observed

Post: #8
Title: Re: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:33 PM
Parent: #7

The Red Carpet aftermath
If there is a lesson that can be learned and benefit from after the disaster of the Red Carpet Routers should be working towards a building an strategic alliance and smart partnership with the AFI region East and Central Africa, particularly Kenya and Ethiopia and work to form a partnership with South Africa the key link of the regional groupings in addition to targeting airlines using the two schemes The first plan is the rehabilitation of air space and redesign to fit the RNAV & PBN requirements , and other commercial attractions through special offers .

Post: #9
Title: Re: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:34 PM
Parent: #8

The commercialization Vs Privatization
Between the inevitability of change and exploring the prospects for the future and the fear mixed with caution, ranging issue of developing the air traffic services amid legitimate questions about quality and when , how and why
Here are objectively some international experiences that might perhaps be a guide for making the right decision in a rational compromise that preserves the state the sovereign right without resorting to the allocation of the absolute, but operating on a commercial basis

Post: #10
Title: Re: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:34 PM
Parent: #9

The British example
The National Air Traffic Services LTD (NATS)
Originated in UK in 1962 as government fully owned air traffic service provider , mainly to service the military air traffic in various location , in 1988 the government decided to reshape the objective of the company and extend its services to the entire UK airspace and cover the eastern part of the Atlantic ocean
The new company came as a direct result of inviting the public to buy stacks and shares result in a %49 owned by the British Government ,%42 owned by the British airlines consortium ( British Airways, Virgin Atlantic ,BMI, Monarch Air Lines Thomas Cook Airlines ) %4 owned by BAA (British Airports Authority) and %5 owned by the employees.
NATS split in to two separate entities (NATS En-route -Ltd )( NERL) a company that provide the air traffic services solely over the UK airspace and NATS services Ltd (NSL) carry out the engineering and technical side of the service ( recently added the ATC services most of UK domestic airports owned by BAA)
The company income drown out of the user charges .

The Swiss Example
Skyguide
The Swiss Air Navigational Service Ltd

The company provide the ATS over Swiss federation %99 owned by the government and the uniqueness of the example came from the provision of ATS to both Swiss military and civil aviation flights.
The company provide only ATC& ATS , The engineering and technical support come from the outsourcing market.

Post: #11
Title: Re: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:35 PM
Parent: #10

The South African Example
ATNS
Air Traffic AND Navigation Service

An independent government owned enterprise provides air traffic control and other related services in most of the southern hemisphere , considered the most advanced among all the African ATC matrix
The company success drown from the firm financial independence and the free well of employment without a national restrictions .
The company bought big shares in the arena of the satellite lines .

The Egyptian Example
The Civil Aviation Holding Company
National Company for Air Navigation Services is a subsidiary of the Egyptian Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation, will cater to:

* Installation and operation of air traffic control services and guidance.
* Organization paths of aircraft, ensuring that no overlap and secure processing routes and navigational aids.
* Provide flight information service through the provision of advice and information necessary for the safety and efficiency of communications and navigation information and warning services.
* Provide assistance to aircraft in need of rescue and help them if necessary.
* Provide other air navigation services, which include the provision of network communications, navigation and surveillance support aircraft operations.
* Establishment of systems of navigational aids necessary to ensure the safety of aircraft and maintenance.
* Preparation of technical studies and provide advice, information and services for the non-processing and operation of air traffic control services and guidance.

Post: #12
Title: Re: Revamping A.T.C in Sudan case study
Author: ابراهيم عدلان
Date: 03-02-2010, 05:42 PM
Parent: #11

The decision for Implementing and restructuring air traffic control service in Sudan must take into account the interests of the country and must be preceded by applying to change the present culture within the Civil Aviation now through intensive workshops of preaching the change and marketing the upcoming changes as the next most effective way of advancement , but without prejudice to the fate of those who gave their youth in the service of this field