Historically, the provision of Airport Traffic Services - the control of aircraft and other activities on the surface and in the immediate vicinity of airports - has depended heavily on the out-the-window view of the controllers in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower. Recent advances in airport surface surveillance and other sensor, automation, and data sharing technologies now allow the consideration of a significant change in the control paradigm for aircraft and vehicles on the airport surface. Through the use of airport surface surveillance displays, and other computer information systems, it is conceptually possible to provide Airport Traffic Services without the ATC tower. With the addition of communication lines, Airport Traffic Services could be provided from remote locations. Moreover, services for multiple airports could be provided from a consolidated service center. This paper investigates the feasibility of remotely providing Airport Traffic Services. The concept of providing Airport Traffic Services remotely would require new procedures and technology. The necessary information to support the situational awareness, control execution and monitoring of airport traffic operations could be provided through the use of airport surface surveillance, including multilateration and Automatic Dependent Surveillance -^sBroadcast (ADS-B), closed-circuit video cameras, and a comprehensive Remote Airport Traffic Services automation system. The Remote Airport Traffic Services automation system will combine the capabilities of the Flight Data Input/Output terminal, tower radar display, Surface Management System [1,2], and Electronic Flight Strip systems. Although this concept represents a significant paradigm shift in the control structure of airport surface Air Traffic Control, the business justification is significant. The ability to provide Airport Traffic Services remotely would allow the consolidation of low-traffic tower facilities, and the opportunity to provide Airport Traffic Services to additional airports with low incremental costs. The FAA's operating costs for ATC towers in fiscal year 2002 was approximately USD197 Million for 290 towers, including both contract towers and FAA-staffed towers [3]. However, a significant portion of this operations expenditure funds ATC towers at low-traffic level airports. Human capital is used with very low efficiency at these facilities, due to the fact that ATC specialists must be on duty at all times, even when there is no traffic requiring their services. By consolidating airport ATC services for many low-traffic airports into a single remote facility, operational costs can be reduced dramatically. The impending introduction of very light jets (VLJs) is likely to increase the number of high-performance jet operations at smaller airports. The performance differences between these VLJs and single-engine piston aircraft at these airports will increase the complexity and challenge of maintaining visual separation by pilots at uncontrolled airports. Airport Traffic Services will be in higher demand at a significantly increased number of airport locations, at the same time that the FAA needs to reduce capital and operating costs. The concept of remotely providing Airport Traffic Services is a potential solution to this challenge.
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