- ICAO relies on Indra again to complete the modernisation of Panama’s air navigation management systems
Indra will complete the modernisation process on Panamas air traffic infrastructures. Besides this, it will also modernise the Air Approach Control Centre systems of Quito airport in Ecuador. Both contracts amount to a total of euros 7.4 M.
In Panama the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which was entrusted with the project followup by the Aeronautical Authority of Panama, commissioned Indra the second phase of it.
During the first phase, from 2004 to 2006, the company started up its ground-to-air VHF communications systems at Balboa’s air traffic control centre which provides the whole country with services. Indra also equipped Tocumen international airport, the country’s most important which is located in Panama City, with air traffic control systems and automated weather observation systems.
In order to reinforce aircraft control and detection, Indra will implement a new Mode S secondary radar system, whose information packages along with information handed over by radars of neighbouring countries will be supplied to the operators at Balboa centre.
Furthermore, the main Panamanian airports: Enrique Malek, Bocas del Toro, Gelabert and Howard will be equipped with Indra's SDC-2000 digital communications systems as well as with VHF systems for the air traffic control towers.
In three of these airports, Enrique Malek, Bocas del Toro and Howard, automated weather observation systems (AWOS) and different auxiliary systems of aeronautical nature will also be started up.
Improvement of flight management in Quito
Regarding Ecuador, Indra will implement its Aircon 2100 air traffic management system for the Directorate General of Civil Aeronautics at Quito's Air Approach Control Centre in Monjas and its SDC-2000 digital communications systems.
Aircon 2100 will facilitate a global vision of aircraft movement. It integrates radar information, flight plans and weather information and can establish communication links with pilots. This way, many repetitive tasks can be automated allowing operators to take in more flights.
For training purposes, Indra will supply a simulation system that includes control and pseudo-pilot positions. The company will also support the training to air traffic controllers and maintenance technicians.
In addition to this project, the company recently started up an air space surveillance station in the Galapagos Islands, an area which until that moment depended on radio communications for traffic management and for support to pilots when approaching local airports.
This station also controls the ocean corridor that joins the archipelago with mainland contributing to Ecuador’s control of its air space. For the startup, Indra's project underwent the most severe environmental audits since the archipelago is protected with one of the strictest ecological standards and has been recently recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Indra in Latin America
The air space of all Central American countries (Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama) is mainly managed with Indra’s systems and equipment. The Central American Corporation for Air Navigation Services, COCESNA, manages all the air space in this area with the company’s technology.
In the other hand, many Latin American countries have implemented Indra's systems. In this aspect we must mention the long-term cooperation with Colombia for the modernisation of the surveillance, control and communications systems in its main control centres and airports.
The company also implemented surveillance and air traffic management systems in Ezeiza airport in the province of Buenos Aires and in Cordoba international airport. In Cordoba, the company supplied training systems to the Training, Improvement and Experimentation Centre.
Indra
Indra is the premier Information Technology company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America. It is ranked as the second European company in its sector according to stock market capitalisation, and also the second Spanish company with the most investment in R&D. In 2008, revenues reached € 2,380 M, of which a third came from the international market. The company employs more than 29,000 professionals and has clients in more than 90 countries.