Remote Air Traffic Services for Scandinavian Mountains Airport

Defence and security company Saab and the Swedish Air Navigation Service Provider (LFV) newly established company Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions AB, has signed a letter of intent with Scandinavian Mountains Airport AB to provide remote air traffic services. The parties’ intent is to sign a contract during the first quarter of 2017.

With this letter of intent, Scandinavian Mountains Airport AB will be the first airport built in the world without a traditional air traffic control tower. The airport is located in Rörbäcksnäs between Sälen, Sweden and Trysil, Norway.

"We will have flexibility in the provision of air traffic control services and that will offer major benefits in meeting the varying seasonal traffic volumes. This is a brand new form of needs-driven air traffic control," says Brett Weihart, CEO of Scandinavian Mountains Airport AB. 

Saab and LFV have developed the remote air traffic service concept, Remote Tower, and were the first in the world to have such a system approved for operation when, on 21 April 2015, air traffic at Örnsköldsvik Airport came under the control of the Remote Tower Centre in Sundsvall. Saab’s Remote Tower remains the only such system in the world that has been approved for operation.

"This letter of intent indicates that future airports will have digital solutions instead of towers. This makes it possible for an airport to utilise air traffic services during the times it is required. In turn, this means more airports remain economically viable and so operational, and thereby contribute to a vibrant countryside," says Johan Klintberg, CEO of Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions