According to Harbour atis their radar is still unserviceable, it would seem Aldergrove are doing the radar function and placing inbounds on the approach albeit a little further out than normal. Sign of things to come?
I was on a visit some time ago at Harbour and remember the controllers saying that Aldergrove radar coverage was poor down the Ards Peninsula area up to quite high levels. I know from experience their radio coverage isn't too hot either the further south you go whereas I can always raise Harbour. Not sure how this would sit with Aldergrove doing radar for the entire Norn Iron area, I would have thought workload would be an issue as well. It would defeat the purpose if the radar function was centralised to save on staffing costs and then twice the amount of manpower was required at Aldergrove to cope with it!
From a business angle as well, who owns the radar at Aldergrove? Is it property of NATS or the airport? I somehow couldn't see Aldergrove management being happy that their equipment was being used to provide Harbour traffic with a service to save Harbour money! I would guess there would be a cash exchange somewhere, keep it low until Harbour has dismantled their infrastructure then charge whatever you like, captive market with no chance of competition.
