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Airservices Australia has reached practical completion on OneSKY-CMATS infrastructure at its three sites in Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne.
The OneSKY-CMATS system, which aims to unify air traffic management across Australia’s civil and military airspace, is slated to go live in the third quarter of 2027, with controllers to be trained on the new equipment starting in March next year.
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Chris Chapman, transformation – OneSKY and aerospace infrastructure program director at Airservices, told Australian Aviation that both software and hardware are on track for their scheduled go-live dates.
“What’s happened since practical completion is Melbourne and Brisbane have both had their mechanical and electrical systems cut across to the new systems, so everything that is now operational in those buildings is being powered by our own building services centre. About 70 per cent of the cost of the entire infrastructure project is in the building services centres,” he said.
“The reason why that cost is so high is because the whole of the aviation industry works on a number of layers of redundancies, and these building services centres have four generators and uninterrupted power supplies and all kinds of technology and equipment that ensures consistent power to the new system.”
The project recently picked up an Australian Institute of Program Management (AIPM) Award at the Victorian state level for its Air Traffic Services Centres (ATSC), which feature air traffic control operations rooms, equipment rooms, mechanical plant rooms, and air traffic controller stand down facilities including showers, sleep rooms, locker rooms and recreational areas.
According to Chapman, the awards recognise, honour, and promote outstanding achievements in program and project management.
“It’s shared between the infrastructure team and our consultants, project managers, that’s TSA Riley,” he said.
“It’s a reward and recognition of works that are interesting to the AIPM and works that are technically challenging and difficult. It’s a nice bit of industry recognition for all of the hard work that’s gone in over the last few years, to say the least.”
Chapman says the OneSKY-CMATS infrastructure program is well within budget, with hardware delivery and testing, as well as training for new and existing controllers, still to be completed before 2027.
“It’s a great program of work. It’s a great project. We look forward to delivering increased efficiency and increased flight optimisation to our customers and the airlines and the travelling public,” he said.
“It’s a very exciting project and I can’t wait to see it go live.”
