Air Traffic Services of Gander Newfoundland
It is phenominal how much stregitical planning and tatical control is involved with one flight through the air traffic control system from point of departure to point of arrival. Gander International Airport is one of the most important airports in Canada. Gander International Airport and Air Traffic Services are responsible for over 28,000 aircraft that pass through its airspace a year. The reason for Gander being an important place for Air Traffic Control is because of its geographic location. Due to weather most aircraft are routed in the narrow strip of airspace between Gander and Prestwick. Almost all Trans-Atlantic flights are handled from Gander, Newfoundland or Prestwick, Scotland. Gander has its own software and hardware known as the GATTS. GATTS stands for Gander Automated Air Traffic System. GATTS interfaces with many other systems to perform complex functions such as storing flight plan information and North Atlantic tracks, computes fix estimates and flight progress strips, performs conflict prediction and transfers flight data to other centers Mr. Micheal Hearn, Technical Services Duty Manager and Mr. Mike O'Rourke presented a tour of the Air Traffic Control centre and its facilities. The tour included a detailed description of the centers facilities. The GATTS program is planning to be expanded because of the airspace Gander has recently taken over. The technology at Gander is getting replaced slowly with newer equipment to better serve the Air Traffic Control centre. Pictures from Air Traffic Control Centre
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