The Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) has awarded French group Thales the contract to modernise and upgrade South Africa’s air space management systems.

Thales would replace the ATNS’ air traffic management (ATM) system with a Thales TopSky Air Traffic Control (ATC) programme, as well as install Thales 970s radars at the Wakkerstroom, Potgietesrus and Rhodes ATM sites. 

The project was set to begin in June, and was scheduled for completion by the end of 2015.

The contracts also provided for a 15-year support and maintenance agreement for all existing ATNS radar sensors and TopSky ATC systems.

Thales said in a statement that improved air space management, advanced technologies and system modernisation were needed to meet future challenges of scalability, as well as the operational costs faced by air navigation service providers and their industrial partners.

Commenting on the project, Thales South Africa CEO Patrick Oszczeda said the technology deployed would be capable of dealing with the challenges associated with the South African airspace, which was emerging as one of the fastest-growing and complex ATM regions on the continent.

“We are proud to be associated with ATNS, especially as we explore new partnership strategies, which we believe will unlock ATNS’s full potential for growth and other avenues of development,” he said.

ATNS acting CEO Thabani Mthiyane added that ATNS remained committed to the delivery of safe and efficient operations to the ATM community, and that technology infrastructure and innovation played an important role in delivering services to customers and stakeholders.

“This project will ensure that internal technology innovation capacity and capability is strengthened for the purpose of long-term joint development and cooperation. This will further benefit the know-how and skills related to ATM in South Africa as a whole, especially in the area of technology transfer and management,” he said.