📋 Tender Overview
The intensive processes for moving the Civil Aviation Air Traffic Control Center to the new privately owned building in Kokkinotrimithia have begun, after the successful completion of all the required preparatory work, both of the building infrastructure and the new technical systems installed in the building.
The renovation works of the building in Kokkinotrimithia, which were completed with the cooperation of the Department of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works and CYTA, concerned the inspection and upgrading of all building facilities, electromechanical systems, air conditioning, fire fighting, monitoring etc. .t.l. Primarily, however, they concerned the expansion of the Air Traffic Management System, as well as the installation of the new communications system. At the same time, the work of transferring the other supporting services of air traffic control continues, while the other necessary staff trainings have started and will be completed in the autumn.
The Covid pandemic in 2020-2021 acted as a deterrent to the completion of the technical part of the project, as it caused a considerable slowdown in the delivery and acceptance schedules of the technical systems. The procedures for accepting and receiving the various systems are inherently time-consuming procedures. Besides, the mission of the systems is such that no "discounts" are allowed in the functions. With enough persistence and cooperation with the contracting companies, it was possible to receive all the systems required to start providing services from the new site.
The design of the systems installed in the new Control Center takes into account the perspective of an upward trajectory of air traffic in Cyprus, with a horizon of more than ten years. Specifically, for the air traffic management system, ten control areas have been installed, compared to the six areas that exist in the existing Control Center, while provisions are in place for the control areas to be easily increased to fourteen. The communication systems in the space are of the latest technology, which can be expanded and cover both the main and backup needs of all air traffic control units, while the equipment program of the services includes additional projects to upgrade the operational capacity of these critical services.
The task of moving to the new Air Traffic Control Center is characterized by particular complexity, since the service it provides is offered continuously on a 24-hour basis. Due to the importance of the service, the move to the new environment can only be completed when it is ensured that no problems will occur that affect the security and efficiency levels of the services. For this reason, the move to the new site has begun and is being done gradually in phases, based on a transition plan, which, among other things, provides for both the parallel operation of both Control Centers for a certain period of time and the preparation of the necessary safety study.
It is also worth noting that the relocation project to the new site, which is under the close supervision of the EUROCONTROL organization (European Network Operator), is strictly limited by the fact that the movement of services cannot take place during the May-October summer period, as international practice for such projects is to take place during periods of lower traffic to minimize the potential negative impact on passenger traffic.
Services transfer processes will culminate in October, while the full transfer of services is expected to be completed before the end of this year.
