Another tid-bit of info... NATS have stepped up to the plate as engineers.
Interesting that Oxford have decided to go that route, I would've thought they'd rather go independent installation.
Won't going with NATS mean they'll have to use NATS for their radar courses?
When I was at another regional airport, a couple of years ago we invited tenders for the instillation of an ILS on the non precision end. NATS were by far the most competetive and most professional bidder.
Oxford Airport Management have no operational experience of installing and opertaing any radar systems and they are sensible enough to recognise this.
They have two options:
1. Have their own radar system installed. Due to the complexity of the local airspace this would almost certainly have to include the provision of SSR. Then they'd have to employ radar rated ATCOs (around 8 of them to cover the current airport hours at abround £55 to £60k per annum each in that area).They'd also have to employ the appropriately qualified engineers.
Instillation would cost in the region of £1m plus around £40k a year for SSR.
There would also be ongoing parts costs, none of which are cheap.
If they employ their own radar rated ATCOs they can send them where they want for training.
2. Contract it all out to NATS for them to provide a centralised approach from Swanwick. For one fixed cost per year, you get all of the above which would almost certainly cost less than a "greenfield installation" and the ongoing costs.
Additionally, they will in the future, only have to employ Tower rated atcos at the airport as NATS will always provide radar and approach rated ATCOs to provide an approach service from Swanwick.
You've got to remember that Oxford never has had radar before so, although in my opinion they don't have the commercial income to justify the cost of either option and never will, if they want it, option two is the sensible choice.
If the Airport owners are looking for a comparison, they should look at Inverness.
They were persuaded to employ a non NATS provider for the instillation and launch of their own radar. The provider was perfectly candid about costs and ongoing expenditure but HIAL still went with it as opposed to centralising the APS function and now they are paying very heavily for it.
Still, that's HIAL for you, twas ever thus I suppose.
