OneSKY Australia Program heralds a new era

With more and more planes taking to the skies, a new air traffic control system is vital for the future.

Overseas experience has informed the process of replacing Australia’s air traffic control system

Last week I signed the final contract for the OneSKY Australia Program that heralds a whole new era for Australian aviation and for everyone who travels through our skies.

It marks a significant milestone in securing, for the first time, unification of civilian and military air traffic control under one system.

It will underpin future air traffic control operations to meet major growth in the Australia ­aviation industry.

There are many who have said this could not be achieved and that time was running out; that we had aimed too high and underestimated the challenges of bringing civil and military air traffic control together, and doing it with world leading technology.

It has taken time, but time was needed to ensure the air traffic control system we will have in Australia will be the most ­advanced, the safest and most ­secure in the world. It was needed to ensure that we have done the work now so the transition to the new system will be seamless and safe for industry and the travelling public.

This milestone is the culmination of this approach.

We will deliver a world-class air traffic control system which will meet the expectations of our airline customers and Australia’s military into the future.

And we will do it with total ­regard to the complexities of the system we are introducing.

Air traffic control systems are not an “off the shelf” product. There is a very limited number of suppliers and every system worldwide is different, catering for a ­nation’s differing airspace, infrastructure and local aviation industry requirements.

Australia’s airspace is complex and unique. Airservices, Australia’s air navigation service provider, is responsible for 11 per cent of the world’s airspace, safely managing over four million air traffic movements and carrying more than 156 million passengers each year.

Australia is home to two of the 10 busiest air routes in the world — Sydney-Melbourne and Brisbane-Sydney. These routes are also in proximity to two major RAAF bases, critical to sustaining our fifth-generation air force.

In addition, in an ever-increasing interconnected world, protection of critical national infra­structure from cyber-attacks is paramount.

Air traffic is predicted to ­increase 50-60 per cent in the next 15 years and over the next decade there will be a multi-­billion dollar investment in Australia’s airport infrastructure.

In this environment, a safe, ­secure and efficient air traffic ­system leveraging the most ­advanced technology is critical to Australia’s economic future.

The economic benefits to Australia of the OneSKY program have been estimated at more than $1 billion. To put this in context, a four-hour stoppage of the air traffic control system has been previously estimated to cost the aviation industry more than $100m.

Air traffic control system replacements are once-in-a-generation and we have made sure we learnt from the experiences of our international peers.

In the US, two programs to ­replace outdated air traffic control systems experienced significant delays and cost blowouts. Initially estimated to cost a total of just over $US3bn, only one of the programs is complete — five years behind schedule. The other is still going 10 years after it was scheduled to be completed. Collectively the two systems cost more than $US6.5bn — more than double the original estimates.

Reports by the US Government Accountability Office and the US Office of Inspector General concluded that the main ­reason for the delays and cost blowout was the uncertainty with the supplier around the system ­requirements.

To overcome this risk, we ­established advanced work orders that progressed critical system ­design activities before committing to the final contract.

In January, we completed the system requirements review, which means Airservices, ­Defence and the contractor ­Thales have a common agreed understanding of system requirements, which significantly reduces overall risks as we finalise the commercial and contractual ­arrangements.

OneSKY is world leading. It has to be for both Airservices and Defence to navigate the aviation challenges ahead and to foster the growth and safety in aviation.

Ultimately for the nation and the national economy, we must continue to ensure the safety, ­security and efficiency of our airspace.

With OneSKY that is what Airservices and Defence will do.

Jason Harfield is chief executive of Airservices Australia.