Sangster Airport Gets New Control Tower

The new air traffic control tower at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St. James, was officially opened and commissioned into service by Minister of Transport and Mining, Hon. Robert Montague, on Thursday, May 17.

The tower is one of two built at Jamaica’s two major international airports, at a cost of $2.5 billion.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Director General of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA), Nari Williams-Singh, outlined some of the features of the state-of-the art facility.

“The tower is fitted with an industry-leading air traffic management system. This has positioned Jamaica as a leading air traffic management environment, with the most advanced equipment available on the market to improve the safety of air operations nationally and globally,” he said.

“The system includes a new Voice Communications Control System; a Time Control System, an Automatic Terminal Information System, microwave, fibre-optic and copper infrastructure; a Meteorological System; a Fire Detection and Signaling System and an Airport Lighting system, with remote control functionalities” he added.

Mr. Williams-Singh pointed out that the new technology will allow the Authority to satisfy international requirements and to remain apace with improvements to technology in aviation.

“As we carefully manage the risks and complexities of new systems and technologies, we continue to foster the adoption of advanced avionics and satellite-based procedures, performance-based navigation (PBN) and other fail-safe mechanisms, procedures, systems and structures, which make our industry safer, more resilient, incident-proof and efficient,” he said

The new towers were built under the JCAA’s comprehensive modernisation programme to upgrade and replace major components of its communications, navigation and surveillance systems.