ERA provides an extension of its surveillance system for Munich airport

ERA has recently signed contracts to extend its previous MLAT system with seven new ground-based stations (GS) for surface guidance at the Munich International Airport in Germany. The customer Munich Airport has chosen the ERA multilateration system as the solution for monitoring aircraft movement in the surrounding of its new terminal 1 extension and the new apron. Currently there are 40 ERA MSS (multi-sensor surveillance) GS in operation and 310 pieces of SQUID vehicle tracking units - if sensors installed by DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH are taken into account - all to ensure safety at the Bavarian air traffic hub.

ERA Company, renowned in Germany as a reliable supplier of multilateration solutions, was awarded the contracts for the supply of the two extensions of its previous system in May 2020; two contracts were assigned by the end user. The need for yet another extensions of the system, originally installed in 2006 and extended in 2012, came about as a result of rapid passenger growth in recent years. ERA as prime contractor proposed its next-gen solution: the NEO system including hardware delivery and project services for the extensions to enhance surveillance coverage of the terminal extension, the new apron plus optimization deployment due to further construction.

After the installation, the system at Munich Airport will consist of 47 ground stations and will be the second largest system of its kind in the world. The Central Processing Station has already been completely modernized and upgraded last year. The solution will fuse the highly accurate positional data from ERA’s ground-based stations and ADS-B squitter beacons SQUID by ERA (310 pieces in operation at present) with radar data in one consistent traffic presentation.

Munich Airport is planning to start operations in the new T-shaped terminal extension by 2022.  ERA experts have already surveyed the site last spring, remotely and in teleconference consultations due to the coronavirus situation and closed borders.  The help of Munich airport technicians was much appreciated. The installation will begin in spring of 2021 and the final round of testing SAT is planned for the first quarter of the year 2022.

The customer will have the benefit of higher availability and increased reliability of the system, thanks to its unique ERA system redundant design and central time architecture. These kinds of MLAT systems have been delivered to major international airports, for instance Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Auckland, Madrid, Istanbul, Mumbai and others. There are also several ERA surface systems functioning at other airports in Germany, specifically: Munich, Hamburg, Braunschweig, Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Berlin.