Global Airport News
Finland’s air navigation service provider (ANSP), has selected Era a.s., a subsidiary of SRA International, Inc., to supply 135 of its latest-generation Squid® vehicle tracking units at the Helsinki Airport in Finland. The Squid units will support the airport’s advanced surface movement guidance and control system (A-SMGCS).
With more than 170,000 take-offs and landings in 2009, Helsinki Airport is Finland’s busiest airport and the leading long-haul airport in Northern Europe, as ranked in number of destinations. Due to the amount of ground movements, Finavia sought vehicle tracking units that could best provide air traffic controllers with complete surface situational awareness to enhance the safety and efficiency of ground operations at Helsinki Airport.
Era Squid units are ADS-B transmitters that are easily mounted on top of airport vehicles. The units constantly and automatically transmit vehicle locations and identification to air traffic controllers, ensuring that a complete picture of all aircraft and vehicles is available to controllers at all times—in all visibility and weather conditions. Era Squids feature an area management function that allows users to define boundaries in and around an airport where the units will automatically turn on and off transmissions. This allows for busy airports to limit the amount of non-essential surface transmissions.
