ENAIRE renews its Espiñeiras radar in the province of A Coruña

ENAIRE, Spain's air navigation service provider, will renew the Espiñeiras radar, in the province of A Coruña, whose installation covers flights and offers aircraft surveillance services for the north-west of the Peninsula, monitoring air traffic coming from the north of the Atlantic. It also caters for aircraft taking off from and landing at the airports of A Coruña, Santiago and Vigo.

Investment is over 1,000,000 euros

The tender for the new, state-of-the-art radar means a 1,096,075-euro investment.

This radar provides aircraft surveillance information for both ENAIRE's Air Traffic Control Centre in Madrid and the Terminal Area Control Centre in Santiago. In total, it will control airspace with a radius of around 250 nautical miles (equivalent to an area of around 670,000 km²).

The Espiñeiras radar replaces the previous civil radar installed at the beginning of 2005. This new secondary radar is equipped with digital receivers and Mode S technology to provide more information on in-flight aircraft, optimise traffic management and increase safety. Radars of this kind are used to monitor and control air traffic by providing information on the position of each aircraft, their identification and altitude at which they are flying, thereby simplifying the location of all traffic operating in the covered area.

Mode S Technology

The Mode S secondary surveillance radar is a definite improvement over the monopulse secondary surveillance radar used until recently. This new radar uses the same frequencies, but is able to perform selective interrogations, thereby reducing radio-electric pollution. 

It will cover aircraft departing from and landing at the airports of A Coruña, Santiago and Vigo

This radar adds to the fifteen other Mode S radars already installed in Spain, completing Mode S coverage of the Cantabrian coast.

Mode S is the most advanced, widely adopted technology currently available for enhancing Spain's surveillance system. The installation of this new radar will help boost ENAIRE's international reputation as a leading air navigation service provider in the field of surveillance, in line with European requirements to progressively implement the latest technologies aimed at improving air traffic management in Europe.

The Espiñeiras radar also includes an Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) system to help locate aircraft via the information provided by their on-board sensors. In the future, this feature will ensure that surveillance information is still available in the event of mechanical radar station breakdown.

This ADS-B system has been co-funded under the “Connect Europe” initiative of the European Union's INEA agency, as part of the project to implement ADS-B surveillance technology presented by air navigation service providers from Spain (ENAIRE) and Portugal (NAV Portugal).

About ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the company belonging to the Public Works Department that handles air navigation in Spain. It renders aerodrome control services at 21 airports, including the busiest in terms of air traffic, plus en-route and approach control, from five control centres: Barcelona, Madrid, Gran Canaria, Palma and Seville.

In 2018 ENAIRE operated 2.1 million flights to and from four continents (Europe, America, Asia and Africa), transporting 300 million passengers.

ENAIRE is the fourth most important European air navigation service provider, and, in a clear commitment to the Single Sky initiative, belongs to international partnerships such as SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, A6, iTEC, CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation) and ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation).