Airports Authority Of India Partners With American Company To Boost Navigation Capability Over Indian Ocean

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has tied up with American company Aireon, which uses a host of privately-owned satellites provides space-based global air traffic surveillance system, reports Economic Times.

Using this service, from January 2020 onwards India will be able to know every 30 seconds the precise position of aircraft flying over the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean falling in its administration.

Planes equipped with automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) technology systems beam their positions to the ground based receivers every few seconds. India has 30 such receivers spread across its land area which help the authorities monitor and regulate the air traffic. However, when a plane is flying over the ocean, air traffic controllers (ATCs) get only a rough idea of the position of an aircraft.

As a result of the partnership between Aireon and AAI, the quality of service which AAI provides to host of aircraft using the Indian airspace will be augmented remarkably.

The partnership between Aireon and AAI began with a Memorandum of Understanding being signed between the two in 2015 under which both parties agreed to develop applicable regulations, standards and procedures for ADS-B equipped aircraft in its airspace.