A pioneering air traffic surveillance system in Otago and Southland is performing ''superbly well'' two months after a $3 million expansion came into effect, Airways New Zealand says.
The benefits were enhanced flight safety and more efficient management of busy airspace, in turn cutting fuel use and carbon emissions and helping airlines offer cheap air fares, the company said.
Airways NZ's installation of nine surveillance stations in remote mountain locations in Otago-Southland over the past 18 months was in addition to the 14 sites the traffic service provider had established around Queenstown in 2009 and 2010.
Airways NZ head of service delivery Paul Fallow, of Christchurch, said the full coverage around the lower South Island had not had a single teething problem since operation began in early November 2013.
The system meant air traffic could now be seen almost 322km out into the Tasman Sea from Queenstown Airport.
''We see down to Invercargill down to about 800ft and Dunedin to about a similar altitude of 800ft to 1000ft, so what that also gives us is some of the safety functions on board, for example short-term conflict alerts, ground-proximity warnings, are able to be used in the surveillance down there now.''
Mr Fallow said air traffic in Queenstown had grown rapidly. The Czech system used internationally allowed for more efficient traffic management with uninterrupted aircraft climb and descent.
''It's taken probably our lowest-tech end of the business, which was south of Wanaka, to now with multilateration, which has also got a thing called ADS-B [automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast] where aircraft can transit their position to use via satellite, which we can put up on display and that gives us a double up on separation,'' he said.
''The intention as we move into the 2020s is to take away our radars on the ground and replace them with multilateration, so it's been the test area for this technology in New Zealand.''
