Ministry: Several options under discussion for Tartu Airport's GPS issues
Radio beacons could be installed at Tartu Airport to overcome GPS jamming and allow planes to land in the future, the climate minister said on Tuesday. Air traffic control could also be changed but this may be too expensive.
On Monday, Finnair temporarily suspended Helsinki-Tartu flights due to GPS interference after two failed attempts to land its planes last week. This is the only international connection to and from the small regional airport in south Estonia.
All sides are looking for a solution to the problem, which has been blamed on Russia. Several options are available, Tuesday's "Aktuaalne kaamera" reported.
"[Landing] procedures could be redesigned in a way that GPS signals are not needed. There are additional ways to cover that, and of course, air traffic control with capabilities for radar vector are one possibility," said Juho Sinkkonen, head of Finnair's flight operations.
Minister of Climate Kristen Michal (Reform) said approach and aircraft type are being studied.
"This is being negotiated between the Estonian and Finnish parties. And the second is the approach of installing certain technological equipment. The same beacons that are everywhere in Estonia – calibrating them and installing them in the right place in Tartu," he told AK.
Radio beacons, or transmitters, placed on the ground and installed in aircraft could be one solution. The devices will send signals to each other to measure distance, which could overcome the lack of GPS.
Michal stressed that if this method does not work, other options are available.
For example, reorganizing air traffic control.
"It can also be done from Tallinn. Nowadays, it can be done quite freely from another place. There is nothing unusual about this in itself. But it would mean an estimated extra cost of around €500,000 for air traffic control to retrain or retrain a number of people for the job and keep their qualifications up to date with the volume of flights that would then come into Tartu," the minister explained.
There is no guarantee flights will return to the airport in June.
"Of course, we would love to come back as soon as possible. [But] I am not able to give you any timelines or deadlines when we will see the desired results," Sinkkonen said.
The climate ministry could not say when the problems will be fixed.
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Editor: Merili Nael, Helen Wright
Source: Aktuaalne kaamera
