{"id":29793,"date":"2026-02-20T00:24:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=29793"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:24:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:24:38","slug":"new-tool-to-automate-air-traffic-control-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=29793","title":{"rendered":"New tool to automate air traffic control operations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 <!-- -->A new air traffic control tool that can ensure safe separation between aircraft is being put through the paces in Singapore, and it will be given AI capabilities in future as part of the next-generation air navigation system here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The current prototype automates the process of determining the time and distance needed for two aircraft to depart safely one after the other. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It is being developed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and research and development laboratory MITRE Asia Pacific Singapore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Straits Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/transport\/singapore-laying-groundwork-to-roll-out-new-air-traffic-management-system-by-late-2020s?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">had previously reported<\/p>\n<p><\/a> that the next-generation air navigation system will be rolled out in the second half of the 2020s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The tool will provide a countdown of the exact time gap required to prevent collisions and manage wake turbulence \u2014 the air disturbances generated by the preceding aircraft \u2013 between two aircraft that depart consecutively. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It will compute the required time needed to maintain a minimum vertical and horizontal distance between two aircraft, right as the first aircraft of the two takes off from the runway. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">A \u201crundown clock\u201d \u2013 or the visual countdown \u2013 will be shown to the air traffic controllers in the control tower, said Mr Vincent Hwa, director of air traffic services at CAAS.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The air traffic controllers can then allow the second aircraft to take off once the countdown reaches zero, providing them with \u201csafety assurance\u201d and allowing them to authorise aircraft to take off at the \u201cmost optimal moment\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">This will maximise capacity on the runway and in the skies, said Mr Hwa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He also noted that the tool will improve the safety and efficiency of air traffic control operations, while easing the cognitive task of processing information for air traffic controllers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It is expected to improve the capacity of<!-- --> <!-- -->Changi Airport\u2019s runways and help air traffic controllers do their work better, after a 2020 study showed that controllers in Singapore may apply slightly longer time gaps than the minimum safety duration required, and that safety durations set for various aircraft differ across controllers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Speaking on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow 2026 earlier in February, <!-- -->Ms Angela Ng, director of aviation industry at CAAS<!-- -->, said air traffic controllers around the world currently rely primarily on human cognition to get the safety distance between two aircraft right. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">At present, in some airports <!-- -->worldwide<!-- -->, controllers evaluate distances between aircraft as shown on radar screens and base their calculations on the size, wingspan and weight of the aircraft.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Mr Hwa noted that there are 49 different permutations for the minimum distance between two aircraft, based on the type of aircraft. The time required to maintain this minimum distance ranges from 60 to 180 seconds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">For example, the minimum time gap for a wide-body Boeing B777 jet in front and a narrow-body Airbus A320 plane following behind is 100 seconds. On the other hand, the minimum duration for a <!-- -->larger<!-- --> wide-body Airbus A380 plane in front and a narrow-body Boeing B737-300 jet following behind is 160 seconds. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">After taking in lessons learnt from the prototype, CAAS will incorporate the tool, with additional artificial intelligence capabilities, into the new air navigation system that is currently in development, said Mr Hwa. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Also earlier in February, Mr Simon Hocquard, director-general of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, told reporters at the Changi Aviation Summit that automation of air navigation services is key to managing the surge in air traffic at airports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He added that at present, air navigation operates in a \u201cvery tactical environment\u201d where controllers have to talk to pilots to tell them what to do and where to go on a \u201creactionary\u201d basis. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">But if this process becomes more strategic and is accurately planned ahead of time through automation and technology, the capacity of the system can be further improved. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">To achieve this, Mr Hocquard said every country would need to be coordinated in their investments in technology to enable<!-- --> <!-- -->the growth of the aviation ecosystem. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\"><b>Editor\u2019s note:<\/b> This story has been amended following a clarification from CAAS that the tool does not have AI capabilities now. These capabilities will be introduced as part of the next-generation air navigation system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/transport\/new-tool-to-ensure-safe-aircraft-separation-being-tested-in-spore-with-ai-planned-for-next-phase\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 A new air traffic control tool that can ensure safe separation between aircraft is being put through the paces in Singapore, and it&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}