Three Busiest Airports in London Using Sensis Technology

NATS air traffic controllers at London Stansted Airport have begun using a high-accuracy surveillance system to monitor the movement of aircraft and vehicles on the airport's runways, taxiways and stand areas to increase the safety and efficiency of the airport's surface.

The Sensis multilateration uses multiple low-maintenance, non-rotating sensors to triangulate aircraft and vehicle locations based on transponder signals to provide air traffic controllers with precise aircraft position and identification information regardless of weather conditions. With a higher update rate and greater positional accuracy than traditional radar, Sensis multilateration provides effective surveillance for increased safety, capacity and efficiency of airspace. With its advanced processing techniques, a Sensis multilateration system uses the minimal number of sensors for a less complex, lower lifecycle cost solution. Additionally, each multilateration sensor deployed by Sensis supports Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B).

"Controllers at Stansted now have the same surveillance capabilities as Heathrow and Gatwick to effectively and safely manage surface traffic in all weather," said Alistair Clark, NATS program manager. "Additionally, using the same surveillance platform across three key airports is cost-effective for NATS as it simplifies training and maintenance."

"NATS has shown great confidence in Sensis and its technologies as we're now providing surveillance for three critical airports that handle over 124 million passengers per year," said John Jarrell, vice president and general manager of Sensis Air Traffic Systems. "Sensis multilateration can be easily expanded to accommodate future airport growth, which recently occurred at London Heathrow as the existing Sensis system was augmented with additional sensors to ensure coverage surrounding the new Terminal 5."

FMI: www.nats.co.uk, www.sensis.com