Vietnam Air Traffic Management Making Shortcuts to High-tech Applications

 

VATM and Vietnam’s aviation industry are members of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Consequently, all activities of VATM comply with ICAO’s recommended practices, and VATM carries out ICAO’s regional and international aviation plans. In the past few years, in its immeasurable efforts to ensure air safety, VATM has contributed to the general development of the aviation industry in the Asia-Pacific region. According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hien, Director General of VATM, to guarantee the management of aviation activities in good order, safety and efficiency, VATM’s investments to modernise the air traffic control system came from a decision to make breakthroughs in heightening the competitiveness of the Vietnam’s civil aviation industry. Efficient operations and sound investments by VATM have been affirmed by its attainment of praiseworthy achievements like the Third-class Independence Order, Labour Medal and Labour Hero Title honoured by the Party and the State over the past decade.

 

One large project conducted by VATM was the investment of the area and approach control centre (AACC/HCM) at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. This is one of the projects under VATM’s investment strategies to master modern technologies. This project, scheduled for inauguration and operation in April 2006, is estimated to be the largest and the most modern in the region. This centre, costing no more than VND360 billion (US$22.5 million), much lower than the estimation of VND398 billion (US$24.87 million) in the feasibility project approved in October 2001, has equipped Vietnam’s air traffic management with a very modern air traffic management in comparison with regional countries. The centre uses a state-of-the-art communication navigation surveillance/air traffic management system (CNS/ATM). The investment for this centre is not only in line with ICAO’s roadmaps and recommendations towards the further modernisation of air traffic, navigation and surveillance services to ensure safety-regularity-efficiency for flights in Vietnam’s flight information regions (FIRs) but also guarantees Vietnam’s integration into the world aviation industry.

 

With great financial support from the State, VATM has become a pioneer in the Vietnamese aviation industry in investing and renovating technologies, applying scientific and technological advances and improving techniques. As a result, VATM is always able to improve its air traffic services. The 10-year process of technological investment and renovation has generated grand achievements in basically changing flight management and control from simple and conventional way (listen-speak) to a modern one (listen-speak- control). In the years to come, an indispensable development tendency in aviation science and technology will be the application of the new communication navigation surveillance/air traffic management system (CNS/ATM). Hence, mastering modern science and technology is a crucial and urgent task for VATM.

 

For this reason, VATM has continued focusing on investing and upgrading its technical infrastructure and modernising its equipment in the direction of making a shortcut to new technologies. To date, a series of automatic systems equipped with state-of-the-art technologies have been installed and put into operation to serve air traffic control works. Typical projects include communication stations (VHF) to provide communicating service between air traffic controllers and airplanes, navigation radio systems and surveillance radar networks for the entire management of flight operations in the FIR/HAN and FIR/HCM. It can be said that thanks to their good grasp of the general tendency with the sound guideline, the infrastructure and equipment system of the Vietnam’s air traffic management is equal to that in the regional countries in terms of modernity. In addition, we also have better systems including air navigation and surveillance systems in flight information regions. Thanks to superior features of new technological and scientific systems, VATM manages to improve air traffic management service quality and ensure safety for both domestic and international flights. With its own capabilities, VATM has helped the State Budget save multiple billions of Vietnamese dong in carrying out its projects because it didn’t need to hire consulting services and other supportive services for technological contents from already-invested VND1,000 billion ($63 million) plus projects.

 

At present, VATM manages two area control centres, three approach control centres, 17 control towers, six primary/secondary radar stations, 40 navigation stations, 14 satellite ground stations, many microwave stations and over 20 VHF stations. VATM supplies air traffic services for 27 international air routes and 21 domestic routes run by nearly 100 airlines. Such services as air traffic control, communication, navigation and surveillance, meteorology, and search and rescue meet ICAO’s practice recommendation.

 

VATM has been implementing and completing several big projects like (AACC/HCM) in Tan Son Nhat International Airport, set for operation in April 2006 to meeting increasing air traffic over FIR/HCM and departure and arrival flights at airports under the Southern Airport Authorities. VATM has invested in building automatic air traffic management system (ATM) of France’s Thales Group in AACC/HCM to cater for the development of the air traffic industry in 15-20 years to come. This system has functions to integrate all radar database, flight database, and automatic dependent surveillance/controller pilot data link communications (ADS/CPDLC) to manage flights in Vietnam’s national airspace and FIRs designated by ICAO to Vietnam. In addition, the system enables VATM to cooperate with regional ATMs in Bangkok, Singapore, Manila and Hong Kong on the condition that these ATMs use AIDC or OLDI communication coordination standards. The AACC/HCM will be responsible for approach air traffic activities at Tan Son Nhat International Airport but will act as a national centre, when necessary, to control air traffic in FIR/Hanoi as well.

 

Also according to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hien, together with other warning and alerting tools, the ATM system serves not only the management of area air traffic, approach and ground support activities in the most synchronous and effective way but also the management of air traffic flow and airspace around the clock in FIR/HCM, and acts as a standby for the flight information region (FIR/HAN). The new ATM system will provide extremely accurate information for air traffic controllers from the time that an airplane takes off until it flies out of FIRs. This technology also supports visual management and operation of flights in the designated airspace and increases safety and effective levels of database transmission lines, provides insiders with all necessary information about en route flights, especially in adjacent FIRs, to prevent collisions between en route airplanes or between aeroplanes and obstacles to ensure well-conditioned air traffic flows.

 

In 2006, VATM will focus its investments and efforts to maintain the modernisation and automation programme for its technical equipment and professional means in the preset process. VATM estimates that it will manage 259,200 flights this year, up five percent against the volume it served in 2005. The controlling works must be kept in a totally safety-regularity-efficiency manner. In addition, VATM will also continue concentrating on completing the construction of air traffic control towers (TWR) in Dong Hoi, Cam Ranh, Ca Mau, Con Son and Lien Khuong airports, DVOR/DME systems in Noi Bai International Airport and other airports like Dong Hoi, Phu Cat and Phu Quoc. Last but not least, VATM will also speed up pace of implementation of control tower construction projects in Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat international airports. VATM will prepare the necessary conditions for the Hanoi ACC construction project, the aeronautical information service automation (AIS) project and the project to develop air traffic technical service centre in order to prepare all essential conditions for international economic integration.