ERA has completed the SAT of its system deployed at Baku Airport
Pardubice, April 22nd, 2014 ERA Company passed the Site Acceptance Tests for the airport surface management system at Baku airport several days ago. The ERA MLAT surface system has been developed as an extension of the already successful implemented Wide Area Multilateration system Caspian Sea. The contract awarded in 2011 has built on the success the Azerbaijan Air Navigation Service (AZANS) has earlier experienced with this system deployed to monitor low flying helicopters and aircraft over the Caspian Sea. This project began when air traffic operations become more demanding in oil and gas sector of Azerbaijan.
“AZANS believes that the choice of ERA will contribute to ensure a reliable solution for such a challenging project, considering the need of integrating this new system for surface management with the WAM system already installed over Caspian Sea, also implemented by ERA,” stated Mr Farhan Guliyev from AZANS.
Further economic development in the Azerbaijan Republic, along with increased business activities and passenger flow into the city of Baku and an increase in traffic at Heydar Aliyev airport has been the impetus behind the need to implement additional airport surface surveillance to mitigate the risk of runway incursions and other ground traffic related incidents. ERA was awarded the contract together with its partners HITT and Terma and they have delivered a solution consisting of an Air Traffic Control system fed by both new surface movement radar and the MSS multi-sensor surveillance system by ERA.
The multilateration system by ERA consists of 18 ground stations with the support of 60 SQUID Vehicle Tracking Units using ADS-B technology. The previous WAM system, which went operational in 2010, consisted of 10 ground stations. The final solution has also brought financial benefits to the customer. The central processing unit can be shared by both systems thanks to the use of the MSS standardized and modular solution by ERA. The newly deployed system has enhanced the safety of the ground operations and the efficiency of use of runways, the apron, taxiways and parking gates. It has also maximised runway capacity and decreased the risk of financial losses due to aircraft damages on the apron.
On Baku airport
Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD) is the busiest airport in the Caucasus having seen a 240% increase in flights over the last 10 years. The airport has a particularly strategic location on the so-called “Silk Road” connecting the West with the East, and hence becoming more and more attractive for transit and cargo flights. There has been an extensive ongoing reconstruction programme for the airport taking place at the same time as the ERA MLAT project: the new modern building of the international terminal, ATC centre and TWR, a new large apron, new runways etc.
