Avinor Vardø aircraft from the Bodø Remote Towers control center for remotely controlled air towers are now controlled – NRK

Since 2011, there has been talk of remotely controlling aircraft towers from Bodø.

Last year, Norway’s first tower was controlled remotely, then from Røst.

This week it was Vardø on Finnmark’s turn.

The air tower in the far north, 750 kilometers away as the crow flies, is now remotely controlled from Bodø.

The goal is to eventually have 15 airports under the control of the aviation city: from Finnmark in the north to Vestland in the south.

Bodø Remote Tower Center, or remotely controlled towers, is an Avinor project that seeks to save money and optimize air operations.

– Here is the new main center of remotely controlled towers that is being established in Norway today, says the center’s managing director, Geir Ove Heir, referring to the building behind it.

Through 14 video screens, Bodø will direct planes in more than half of the country. The camera lenses provide a 360-degree overview of weather, traffic, and landing conditions.

– The sensors we use, both camera and sound, allow us to see things that we do not see from the usual towers. For example, we can see in the dark with cameras, he says.

An obvious problem in the transition is security. This has been asked multiple times, and Avinor’s answer is the same:

– A fixed goal is for security to be as good or better than before.

Avinor believes that technology is more secure than what we have today.

Employee organization: – Good dialogue with Avinor

Another issue has been employment.

Between 70 and 80 employees at Norwegian airports are affected as a result of the Avinor project.

– So far, the transfer of employees has gone very well. It has been a long and thorough process in collaboration with the Civil Aviation Authority, which has now approved the system for Røst and Vardø.

That’s what Mari Halvorsen Sundgot, Delta Aviation’s deputy director, says.

Those working in the Avinor towers, either as air traffic controllers or AFIS agents *, must have received an additional job offer in Bodø in one of the so-called business transfers.

– In Vardø, most of the people who worked on the aerial tower have already moved south, he says.

So far, three Røst employees and a total of five from Vardø are affected.

– One of the five has another job in Avinor, one is retiring and the other three moved to Bodø and told us that they are happy with him, he tells NRK.

Already in November, the employees of two new towers, Hasvik and Berlevåg in Finnmark, will be transferred to Bodø.

The heir says that basically no one loses their job.

– Everyone has been offered to join Bodø. Most have said yes, while others have not.

He says it is difficult to estimate how many jobs are created by this, but he estimates around 50 jobs in the center of Bodø.

Delays and people who have to move

When Avinor in 2017 had to postpone the prestige project to make sure security was good enough, several became concerned.

– We need more time for all the systems to work together well enough, said Jens Petter Duestad, manager of remote control tower control operations at Avinor.

He ensured that the system would be safe and robust.

Heir responds the same to NRK now:

– We have had delays and encountered some challenges in finding the best possible technology. As I said, we never compromise on security and therefore we use the time we need to find the system that works optimally.