Dubai Air Navigation Services (Dans) is planning to invest Dh9 million ($2.45 million) to upgrade the world’s largest 360-degree tower simulator it has developed over the years at a cost of Dh20 million ($5.45 million).
 
The independently-managed air navigation service provider is tasked with air traffic control (ATC) and air traffic engineering services at both the Dubai International Airport and the Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai World Central (DWC) in Dubai, UAE.

The tower simulator is owned, operated and utilised by Dans to provide learning and training facilities to its employees including air traffic controllers and air traffic engineers.

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 is in a league of its own in terms of replicating the reality as close as possible which in turn helps in producing highly-skilled controllers, as well as facilitates safety evaluation of procedures and systems. Safety remains our top priority.”

Located in Dubai World Central, the Tosim tower simulator is capable of mimicking almost any airport in the world, which enables best practice used in other regions, to be trialed and, where required, enhanced in the simulator before deployment into the Dubai airspace. This capability also ensures that the highest safety standards are adhered to without the chance of disruptions to live operations. The simulator has the world’s largest 360 cylindrical HD projection system.

The facility also enables prototyping and development of concepts enabling reductions in deployment time helping Dubai to keep pace with the continual traffic growth. In addition, this simulator provides a highly-accurate and close to reality training environment for controllers, resulting in reduced training times and saving money for the stakeholders. - TradeArabia News Service