Airservices Australia this month marked the 10th anniversary of aircraft separation by Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) technology.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) first approved the use of ADS-B on 5 December 2004 for use near Bundaberg, Queensland.
Airservices has since become the first in the world to commission a continent-wide ADS-B system, which today is a network of 75 ADS-B ground receiver stations that supports 99% of all jet passenger flights using the technology.
Airservices Executive General Manager Air Traffic Control, Mr Greg Hood, said a decade of ADS-B in Australia reinforces the air navigation service provider as a world leader in the introduction of the surveillance technology.
“ADS-B, when coupled with other satellite-based navigation technologies, is the future of air traffic surveillance, not only in Australia, but throughout the rest of the world,” Hood said.
“ADS-B delivers enhanced air traffic surveillance and offers our airspace users increased levels of safety, providing them with more efficient routes, while reducing aviation’s footprint on the environment.”
Airservices has also commissioned two new ADS-B ground stations as part of its coverage enhancement program. The new ground stations, installed at Mount Tassie, East Sale, and at Mount William, in the Grampians National Park, will provide ADS-B coverage over Victoria and into Bass Strait.
Additional ground stations will be added in 2015, to cover regional and general aviation operating at lower flight levels.
CASA has mandated the fitment of ADS-B equipment in all IFR aircraft flying in Australia’s airspace, at all altitudes, by 2 February 2017.