Report 2621
According to a study carried out in 2014 by the company Investigación y Control S.A (Incosa) at the request of AENA, the useful life of the Menorca Airport control tower ended in 2019 with an extension in extremis that marks the year 2024 as the limit for its replacement or renovation. The airport on an island is a fundamental pillar for communication and the economy, which is why in 2010 the construction of a new control tower was announced in the Master Plan for Airports. However, the work was never carried out and the tower - which is the oldest in Spain, inaugurated in 1968 - continues to function.
In 2019, shortly after the final deadline indicated by the report, AENA and ENAIRE -the two public entities in charge of managing airports throughout the country- announced successive projects to replace the current control tower with a modern project of “remote tower”. It is an "autonomous artificial vision" system that would avoid the construction of a traditional control building and would replace it with a sophisticated team of cameras and artificial intelligence, with which to monitor the entry and exit of aircraft virtually.
The system was tested for the first time at a European airport in 2002, specifically in Germany, "although always at airports with less air traffic than Menorca", according to some air traffic controllers.
“This cannot be done overnight”
From Comisiones Obreras, a union that integrates air traffic controllers and airport personnel in Menorca, they denounce the lack of answers on how the project will be carried out specifically: "There is one year left until the deadline indicated in the report is met and AENA continues without giving answers. We do not know with what personnel we are going to cover the vacancies of the remote tower, because even for the old tower we have been lacking people since 2008”.
“Neither is there a specific training plan for the use of this technology. In 2009 it was implemented in Sweden and the controllers needed seven years to train, in an airport with 10 movements a day while the one in Menorca has 23 and rising. We are not opposed to the project, but this cannot be done from one day to the next”, emphasizes Ramón Carreras, a member of the union, in dialogue with elDiario.es.
"There is still a year to go until the deadline is met and AENA still hasn't given answers. In 2009 it was implemented in Sweden and the controllers needed seven years to train, in an airport with 10 movements a day, while the one in Menorca has 23 and going up" - Ramon Carreras - CCOO
To clear up the unknowns about this project, elDiario.es has spoken with AENA, who acknowledge that the implementation of the remote tower "is a complex process in which progress is being made little by little." “There is already a new control unit equipped with air navigation systems and visualization through cameras, and we are currently in the testing phase of the systems. Once the testing phase is finished, the training of personnel will proceed in the new unit until the start of service, which will require prior approval from the AESA (State Aviation Safety Agency) for the start of service," they point out.
Likewise, from AENA they add that, for the moment, "since the process of testing and training of the controllers has not been completed, AESA has not issued any report in this regard. Probably in the coming months there will be news regarding this matter.
"It is a complex process in which little by little progress is being made. There is already a new control unit equipped with air navigation systems and camera visualization, and we are currently in the testing phase of the systems" - **AENA **
“We are paid to order traffic, not to play with a joystick”
For her part, María José de la Quintana, head instructor at the airport, points out that there are other problems that have not yet been solved. “We have air traffic from the Mateu Orfila Hospital at one of the ends of the runway and behind the airport we have the runway of the flying club from where planes leave and enter. The cameras that they intend to install offer a compressed image of the traffic and even, during a test process, one of the cameras suddenly stopped working due to a cooling problem”.
“On the other hand, it was insisted that these cameras not be installed more than 250 meters from the runway axis and they are installed more than 400 meters away. They pay us to order air traffic, not to play with a joystick”, he emphasizes.
"We are paid to order air traffic, not to play with a joystick" - María José de la Quintana - Head instructor at Menorca airport
In addition to the lack of planning for such a central element for airworthiness as the control tower, there is an important piece of information: during the 2022 summer season, Menorca airport saw almost 4 million people pass through its facilities, between months of April and October, according to data from the Balearic Islands Statistics Institute (Ibestat).
Along the same lines is a report prepared by Comisiones Obreras, which indicates that Menorca and Eivissa are the airports with the highest seasonality in the world, that is, they concentrate 90% of their activity during the months of "high season". . This large-scale tourist flow requires adequate infrastructure, since the volume of flights to the islands is expected to increase in crescendo in the summer of this year.
The electricity problem
For his part, the spokesman for Més x Menorca at the Island Council, Josep Juaneda, told elDiario.es that "the remote project is a digital installation" and that "if there were any electrical or energy problem, Menorca would be completely isolated ”. “Those of us who live on the island depend on the airport for many things other than going to and from vacation. We cannot subject our communication with the outside to the launch of an experiment for which, on the other hand, there are no adequately trained personnel and it is very difficult to have one within a year”, he comments.
"The remote project is a digital installation and if there were any electrical or energy problem, Menorca would be completely isolated" - Josep Juaneda - Spokesperson for Més x Menorca at the Consell Insular
“We are going to continue demanding that AENA propose a project, execute a work and build a tower. We are not opposed to the remote tower also existing, but we believe that as it is an experimental project, it should be tested beforehand in less vulnerable places”, he concludes.