Speech at Panel on Economic Development

Full commissioning of the new Air Traffic Management System

Incidents related to the full commissioning of the new ATMS

Mr CHAN Chun-ying opined that the public confidence in the new ATMS had been dampened by the recent incidents related to the new ATMS despite CAD’s assurance that such incidents had not affected aviation safety. He enquired about the Administration’s measures to ease the public concern about aviation safety.

Given that some pieces of information on the new ATMS provided by some individuals or the media were inaccurate, the Chairman urged the Administration to enhance its transparency and devise an effective mechanism in reporting incidents related to the new ATMS so as to reassure the public and overseas travellers of Hong Kong’s aviation safety.

Ag STH expressed understanding of the concern of the public, and reiterated that direct users of the new ATMS, including local airlines and ATCOs, had expressed confidence in and satisfaction with the performance of the new ATMS. He stressed that aviation safety was not affected by the incidents as confirmed by NATS, being an independent consultant appointed by the Administration to give advice on the teething issues associated with the new ATMS, and upholding aviation safety was the Administration’s utmost target and effort. He went on and advised that the Administration had always been transparent in distributing the related news. Its efforts included inviting the media to visit the air traffic control (“ATC”) centre at CAD to better understand its operation, explaining to the public on the incidents, and setting up an independent expert panel to give objective advice to DGCA on matters related to the new ATMS.

Noting Raytheon’s role in providing on-site expert advice, Mr CHAN Chun-ying asked if resident site staff from Raytheon would be invited to station in Hong Kong until the performance of the new ATMS had become stable and satisfactory. The Chairman expressed a similar view. In response, DGCA advised that two experts from Raytheon would extend their stay in Hong Kong until January 2017 to work with CAD on the teething issues.

Mr Niall GREENWOOD of NATS advised that the transition of the ATC operations onto a new ATMS was enormously complex. The reviews conducted by NATS were not meant to assess the performance of the new ATMS, but to ensure the new ATMS’ engineering and associated operational practices could support the software’s effective use. In this connection, NATS was satisfied that the factors facilitating a full transition of the old ATMS to the new ATMS were present before the full commissioning of the new ATMS.