ACR wins public tender for six airports

The private Swedish Air Navigation Provider ACR Aviation Capacity Resources (ACR) has won the joint procurement tender for the provision of air traffic control (ATC) services at the airports in Borlänge, Mora, Trollhättan Vänersborg, Stockholm-Västerås, Växjö and Örebro. ACR provides, already today, ATC and MET services at five of these airports and is now awarded a new contract for the next four years. In addition, Mora Airport will be a new customer for ACR and thus become the airport number 18 in the ACR-portfolio.

The contract duration for the provision of ATC at these 6 airports begins on 1^st January 2022 to 31^st December 2025 with the option of an extension for additional two years. While Stockholm-Västerås, Växjö and Örebro were among the first airports that were operated by ACR in 2011, Borlänge and Trollhättan Vänersborg joined the ACR group of airports a few years later. Mora Airport has previously been run under its own auspices and will be the latest addition to the ACR family.

Sweden partially deregulated the market for the provision of air navigation services in 2010 and is since open for certified European providers to provide ATC at Swedish airports. In this tender process, ACR managed to win the procurement over national and international competitors.

“We are all very pleased to continue the collaboration with ACR. ACR maintains a very high level of service and the management is always accessible, which helps us to develop and implement joint decisions in short time” says Tezz Tordsdotter Åkerman, the CEO of Stockholm-Västerås Airport.

"It is very gratifying that ACR can count on the market confidence and our way to provide ATC in a safe and cost-effective way. We welcome that, from January 2022, we will additionally operate the tower in Mora, as we believe to achieve staffing synergies in operating both- Borlänge and Mora - under the umbrella of ACR. We are now coming out of the pandemic tunnel with a very strong order book as most of the company's agreements run until 2028,” says Wilhelm Wohlfahrt, CEO of ACR.

“Through the invitation of competition and market mechanisms, Airports across Europe can achieve substantial cost savings needed for the recovery period, where the focus will centre more on scalability and an innovative use of resources.  The entire aviation industry has had two very tough years. Going forward, airlines and airports will place more emphasis on efficiency in operations and in costs” continues Wilhelm Wohlfahrt.

To further increase our service portfolio for our airports and our future customers, ACR will - throughout 2021 – obtain the certificate to provide CN(S) services, (Communication, Navigation & Surveillance). This is the next step in the company's development and an investment to increase our service portfolio and attractiveness as an efficient provider of air navigation services for airports across Europe.

ACR's monopoly-breaking business concept is a game-changer and innovator within the ANS industry and builds on innovation paired with a lean and focused organizational structure. Since the start of the deregulation process in Sweden in 2010, the costs of ATC services for have been reduced by 30 to 40 percent for these airports that have tendered out their air traffic services.