The new Western Sydney International Airport will be lacking a key ingredient when it opens next year.
It will not have a traditional air traffic control tower on site.
Airspace controllers will instead be stationed at a data centre almost 20km from where the planes are landing.
Instead of a control tower with visual controllers, there will be a 45-metre mast fitted with 20 high-definition cameras beaming live feeds back to the data centre.
The data centre will use artificial intelligence (hmm) to overlay information using live feeds.
The system will also utilise object tracking, infrared cameras, night vision and image enhancement to allow controllers to see beyond the limitations of the human eye.
Should something go wrong - maybe a cyberattack or power outage, approach controllers based at Sydney Airport will take over.
Except Sydney Airport shuts down overnight and Western Sydney is supposed to be a 24-hour operation. That could be problematic.
Critics say this is a case of saving money by using AI technology instead of paying someone a wage.
A similar system is used at London City Airport, where planes are guided by air traffic controllers based 115km away in the NATS control centre at Swanwick in Hampshire.
There are also three digital airfields in Germany, plus others in Argentina, Brazil, Hungary and Norway, but this is the first in Australia.
The new WSI airport will not have a night-time curfew.
It is officially known as Western Sydney International (Nancy Bird Walton) Airport; named in honour of Nancy Bird Walton, the youngest Australian woman to gain a pilot's licence.
Singapore Airlnes, Qantas and Jetstar are among the airlines to have committed to using the new facility.
So moral of the story is we want to save $$$ by putting in AI technology instead of paying someone a living wage
So moral of the story is we want to save $$$ by putting in AI technology instead of paying someone a living wage
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