Jersey Airport has become the first airport in the British Isles to achieve approval for the operational use of a digital remote tower.
Following a testing period in recent months, including training for all air traffic controllers, this approval now allows Jersey Airport to control 'live' air traffic from its remote facility, located just south of the airfield - providing a contingency plan in the event of an evacuation of the main air traffic control (ATC) tower.
This is the first-time remote tower approval has directly involved EASA, which is the Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) Competent Authority for Jersey. The approval has also been endorsed by the Director of Civil Aviation (DCA) for the Channel Islands, Dominic Lazarus.
The overall investment in the project, which was entirely funded by Ports of Jersey is £1.2 million.
On behalf of Ports of Jersey, senior air traffic controller, Les Smallwood, said: "We have worked collaboratively with both Frequentis and Systems Interface to ensure Jersey Airport's remote tower project was delivered successfully. In addition, this involved working closely alongside EASA to ensure all regulatory and training requirements were delivered, including approved conversion training. This was all achieved prior to shadowing and live training, and as a result we're extremely pleased with the contingency remote digital tower and can achieve the same capacity as the conventional tower.