Airservices Australia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Airservices Australia is an Australian Government agency, responsible for providing safe and environmentally sound air traffic control management and related airside services to the aviation industry (ie: air traffic control, airways navigation and communication facilities, and airport rescue and fire-fighting services) within the Australian Flight Information Region.

The Australian Flight Information region covers 11 percent of the earth’s surface of not only Australian airspace but also international airspace over the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Airservices Australia also manages upper-level airspace (above 30,000 ft) under contract to the neighbouring Pacific Island Flight Information Regions of the Solomon Islands and Nauru, and lower–level airspace in the Pacific Ocean region at six airports for the United States Federal Aviation Administration.

Each year, Airservices Australia manages air traffic operations for more than three million domestic and international flights carrying some 47 million passengers.

The aviation industry also relies on Airservices Australia for aeronautical data, telecommunications and navigation services.

The agency has a fixed asset base of $414 million across 600 sites and about 3000 employees, including 1000 air traffic controllers working from two major centres at Melbourne and Brisbane Airports, and 26 air traffic control towers at international and regional airports.

In 1999 the agency commenced using The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System (TAAATS), a computerised air traffic control system covering all sectors of Australian air space.

Airservices Australia also provide Aviation Rescue and Fire Fighting services at 17 of the nation’s busiest airports where there are more than 350,000 passenger movements a year.

Airservices Australia is a full member of CANSO

The agency is managed by a Board of Directors, responsible to the Australian Parliament, through the Minister for Transport and Regional Services, The Honourable Mark Vaile MP. The Board is headed by Chairman Nick Burton Taylor AM. The Chief Executive Officer of Airservices Australia is Greg Russell.