A STATE-CONTROLLED airport firm has shelved plans to centralised some of its air traffic control operations in the wake of safety fears.
Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (Hial) had plans to relocate air traffic work to one "remote site" in Inverness despite fears from the union Prospect that public safety was at risk.
Proposals for a single remote tower centre - said to be a UK first -were first mooted four years ago as part of HIAL plans to "future-proof" its operations with an estimated £28 million investment over the next ten to 15 years.
The union also raised concerns that it would put almost 59 jobs at risk. HIAL has said the plan no longer formed part of its proposed modernisation of air traffic control.
A separate plan to downgrade air traffic services for Benbecula and Wick John O'Groats airports is also to be reviewed.
HIAL will have to prepare a new business case to present to Transport Scotland for approval.
Under HIAL's original plan, air traffic control for Inverness, Sumburgh in Shetland, Dundee, Kirkwall in Orkney, and Stornoway in the Western Isles would be controlled centrally.
Unmanned towers would feed information to a hub in Inverness.
It was claimed that would involve the removal of seven existing towers at Inverness, Dundee, Shetland, Orkney, Wick, Benbecula and Stornoway.
Prospect, which represents air traffic control staff at HIAL airports, said the 'staggering' plans involved moving air traffic control to Inverness would remove skilled jobs and around £1.5m of direct employment from rural and island economies and would "run contrary" to the recently published Islands Plan produced by the Scottish Government which owns HIAL.
Now following discussions with Prospect, HIAL has proposed controlling traffic on radar centrally, but with local air traffic control remaining in place to have visual contact with aircraft.
HIAL chairman Lorna Jack said it had listened to staff and island communities in reaching its decision.
She added: "his alternative delivery of the ATMS programme will provide enhanced safety and resilience to our operations and retain air traffic controllers on the islands.
“While this sets the future strategic direction for the programme, the board recognises that further detailed work will be required with colleagues before a comprehensive business case can be presented to Transport Scotland. This will include a review of our island impact assessment.”
Inglis Lyon, managing director of HIAL said: “We were pleased to note the encouraging feedback from Prospect on the constructive working relations that have been developed through the staff working groups.
“We look forward to continuing this positive approach with Prospect and our colleagues as we move into the next phase of detailed operational design.
“We hope the Board’s decision will enable the current industrial action to be brought to a conclusion and allow us to move forward together to deliver our fundamental aim – a modern, sustainable air traffic service for the Highlands and Islands.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel