Wirraway
4th Nov 2004, 13:21
Fri "The Australian"
Minister stands by $150m radar bid
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer
November 05, 2004
AIRSERVICES Australia will have to convince Transport Minister John Anderson there is no need to spend $150 million to install radar at airports subject to this month's national airspace system rollback.
A spokesman for Mr Anderson said this week that a directive requiring the radar at regional airports where Class E airspace would be reclassified to Class C on November 25 still stood, despite advice from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority questioning its need.
"As far as the minister is concerned, the directive stands and it's up to Airservices to convince him on the cost-benefit issue," the spokesman said.
He was commenting on an assessment of the changes provided to Mr Anderson this week by CASA chief executive Bruce Byron.
Mr Anderson released a letter from Mr Byron in which the CASA chief warned that any attempt to halt the November 25 rollback would "result in widespread confusion that would present unacceptable risks to the travelling public".
The letter, which Mr Anderson said he released in the interests of transparency, looked at claims that there was a "close to intolerable risk" associated with reverting to Class C airspace without radar.
The claims prompted Mr Anderson to issue a directive before the election requiring Airservices Australia to install radar at 10 regional airports subject to the November 25 revision.
In his assessment, Mr Byron said radar improved safety but the level of risk in Australian non-radar Class C terminal airspace had been assessed as only marginally higher than Class C with radar.
"This would seem to be an area where the traffic densities experienced in Australian airspace provide a different result than North America," he said.
"Additionally, there has been no evidence provided to CASA to support the claim that procedural non-radar Class C airspace in Australia is unsafe, and certainly not close to intolerable risk as you were previously advised."
Mr Byron said modelling undertaken by CASA several years ago demonstrated that the risks in non-radar Class C airspace in terminal areas were acceptable.
The addition of radar to areas where it was not available would lower risk from an already acceptable level and should be justified on cost-benefit grounds.
"On the strength of the information provided to me, it is my view that it would not be warranted to prescribe Class C airspace as exclusively radar airspace," Mr Byron said.
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Minister stands by $150m radar bid
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer
November 05, 2004
AIRSERVICES Australia will have to convince Transport Minister John Anderson there is no need to spend $150 million to install radar at airports subject to this month's national airspace system rollback.
A spokesman for Mr Anderson said this week that a directive requiring the radar at regional airports where Class E airspace would be reclassified to Class C on November 25 still stood, despite advice from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority questioning its need.
"As far as the minister is concerned, the directive stands and it's up to Airservices to convince him on the cost-benefit issue," the spokesman said.
He was commenting on an assessment of the changes provided to Mr Anderson this week by CASA chief executive Bruce Byron.
Mr Anderson released a letter from Mr Byron in which the CASA chief warned that any attempt to halt the November 25 rollback would "result in widespread confusion that would present unacceptable risks to the travelling public".
The letter, which Mr Anderson said he released in the interests of transparency, looked at claims that there was a "close to intolerable risk" associated with reverting to Class C airspace without radar.
The claims prompted Mr Anderson to issue a directive before the election requiring Airservices Australia to install radar at 10 regional airports subject to the November 25 revision.
In his assessment, Mr Byron said radar improved safety but the level of risk in Australian non-radar Class C terminal airspace had been assessed as only marginally higher than Class C with radar.
"This would seem to be an area where the traffic densities experienced in Australian airspace provide a different result than North America," he said.
"Additionally, there has been no evidence provided to CASA to support the claim that procedural non-radar Class C airspace in Australia is unsafe, and certainly not close to intolerable risk as you were previously advised."
Mr Byron said modelling undertaken by CASA several years ago demonstrated that the risks in non-radar Class C airspace in terminal areas were acceptable.
The addition of radar to areas where it was not available would lower risk from an already acceptable level and should be justified on cost-benefit grounds.
"On the strength of the information provided to me, it is my view that it would not be warranted to prescribe Class C airspace as exclusively radar airspace," Mr Byron said.
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