Better than humans: the airport where cameras replaced the air traffic controllers
At an airport in northern Sweden, passenger jet movements are managed remotely from 140km away by controllers watching video. It’s a system that could soon become commonplace
Passengers landing at remote Ornskoldsvik Airport in northern Sweden might catch a glimpse of the control tower likely unaware there is nobody inside.
The dozen commercial planes landing there each day are instead watched by cameras, guided in by controllers viewing the video at another airport 140km away.
Ornskoldsvik is the first airport in the world to use such technology. Others in Europe are testing the idea, as is one airport in the United States. While most of the world’s airports will, for some time, still have controllers on site, experts say unmanned towers are coming. They are likely to first go into use at small and medium-sized airports, but eventually even the world’s largest airports could see an array of cameras mounted on a pole replacing their concrete control towers.
The companies building these remote systems say their technology is cheaper and better than traditional towers.
“There is a lot of good camera technology that can do things that the human eye can’t,” says Pat Urbanek, a project manager at Searidge Technologies.
Cameras spread out around an airport eliminate blind spots and give controllers more-detailed views. Infrared can supplement images in rain, fog or snow and other cameras can include thermal sensors to see if animals stray onto the runway at the last second.
