ENAIRE enhances safety with a new voice communications system in Seville

ENAIRE has implemented a new Last Resort Voice (LRV) Response System at its Seville Air Control Centre, both in its usual operations room and in the contingency room. Sometime this year, it will also be installed in the Palma control centre and its contingency room. In coming years, it will be implemented in the remaining control facilities in the Canary Islands, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Málaga and Madrid.

The LRV system is designed to provide redundancy to the usual voice communications system (VCS) used by air traffic controllers, mainly in response to potential incidents or scheduled outages involving the VCS, thus guaranteeing a very high availability rate for these critical communications. It relies on voice over IP (VoIP) technology provided by the Austrian firm Frequentis.

This system is used for voice communications over both radio, with aircraft, and the telephone, with controllers from other facilities.

This new LRV system replaces the previous ones used and, once the programme is fully implemented, will provide the following benefits:

- Increased capacity of the radio and telephone resources available to air traffic controllers.

- New functionalities for processing communications and the information provided to users about their status.

- Improved communications quality.

- Division of airspaces integrated into the Automated Air Traffic Control System (SACTA).

- Greater versatility to establish procedures that trigger a contingency.

- Full integration into ENAIRE's IP communications network, making it easier to migrate to a VoIP environment and phase out older interfaces.

- Increase the technical staff's control capacity and ability to monitor the system's status.

About ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the air navigation service provider in Spain.

As a company of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, it provides en route control services for all flights and overflights from five control centres in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Gran Canaria and Palma, as well as approach services to every airport in the country.

In addition, 45 control towers receive ENAIRE's communication, navigation and surveillance services, and 21 airports, including the country's busiest, rely on its aerodrome control services.

ENAIRE is Europe's fourth largest air traffic manager. Since 1 January 2022, it has chaired the A6 Alliance, a coalition of air navigation providers responsible for over 80% of European air traffic, and which is seeking to modernise the air traffic management system. It is also a member of other international alliances promoting the Single European sky, such as SESAR Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, iTEC, CANSO and ICAO.

ENAIRE has received the highest score in Europe on the aviation safety key performance indicator. It has also been awarded the EFQM 500 Seal for its safe, efficient, innovative and sustainable management of air navigation services.