DANS to upgrade world’s largest tower simulator

Dubai Air Navigation Services (DANS) is planning to invest AED nine million to upgrade the world’s largest 360-degree tower simulator it has developed over the years at a cost of AED20 million.

The independently-managed Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) is tasked with Air Traffic Control (ATC), and Air Traffic engineering services at both Dubai International and Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai World Central (DWC).

The tower simulator is owned, operated and utilized by DANS which provides learning and training facilities to its employees. Nils Olof Svan, vice president for strategy at DANS, said: “We have a big use of this 3D full-scale simulator. We are at times running it in two shifts, totaling 18 hours a day. Return on investment (ROI) is high. The advanced facility will help in producing highly-skilled controllers, as well as facilitates safety evaluation of procedures and systems .Safety remains our top priority.”

The TOSIM tower simulator enables prototyping and development of concepts enabling reductions in deployment time helping Dubai to keep pace with the continual traffic growth. Dubai’s two airports are on a curve of exponential growth that will see a massive surge in aircraft movement in the coming years. Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) forecasted aircraft movements for both airports rising to 665,000 in 2020, up from 307,283 in 2010.

According to General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) projections, the UAE Flight Information Region (FIR) would have 1.13 million flight movements by 2020 and 1.62 million aircraft movements by 2030 – Dubai accounts for almost 80% of the UAE’s air traffic.