Airspace Management in WA

Melbourne Centre controls air traffic over most of Western Australia, much of the Indian Ocean and part of the Southern Ocean. It borders seven individual foreign states and 2 additional service providers - McMurdo in Antarctica, and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The majority of these Indian Ocean states have recently become signatories to the Indian Ocean Operations Manual. The Kimberley's, from Broome northwards, are controlled by Brisbane Centre.

Communications lines to Johannesburg, Diego Garcia and Mauritius are unreliable. West Group has 35 VHF frequencies located at a greater distance displacement than any other group in either Melbourne Centre or Brisbane Centre. It also has a considerably larger reliance on satellite and landline facilities from external providers.

South-West Regional Services provides radar control from 36nm Perth to about 200nm Perth. It consists of three sectors¾Lancelin (LCI), Katanning (KNG) and Jarrah (JAR).

LCI and KNG form two concentric crescents of Class A,C and E airspace around Perth, with LCI being the inner sector and KNG the outer. They provide what used to be known as arrivals control. Here, aircraft are in a transitionary phase of flight: departing aircraft are climbing and not yet established on their planned routes; arriving aircraft are being taken off their routes and placed on standard arrival routes, preparatory to landing.

Because the workload has increased steadily over the past few years, the KNG controller has found himself coming under increasing pressure during peak traffic periods. The need to provide both radar and procedural air traffic separation has meant that the sector has the potential to become overloaded. In December 2005 a fourth sector, KNGA, was installed. This means that the south-eastern portion of the sector, on 118.2, can be split off to the JAR controller, or as a stand-alone sector, for short periods.

JAR controls the Class A, E and G airspace over south-western WA and the adjacent Indian and Southern Oceans. It also provides a flight information service to aircraft in the Class G airspace underlying LCI and KNG and, where possible, a radar advisory service.

Within 36nm of Perth, Perth Approach (PHA) and Perth Departures (PHD) provide air traffic control. The Class C control zone is split into northern and southern halves by a line running from, approximately, RTI-PH-CUN (Rottnest Island - Perth - Cunderdin). Approach and Departures operate opposite halves depending upon the runway in use. During runway changes, Approach takes all of the Class C airspace until normal operations resume, and then returns the relevant half of airspace to the Departures controller. Flow Control is also directed from the Perth Terminal Control Unit. In the underlying Class G airspace, Perth Radar provides a radar advisory service to aircraft that are mainly operating in and out of Jandakot.

Perth Tower is responsible for air traffic control and surface movements control at Perth International Airport. Located near the International Terminal, it has a very good view of the airport and its surrounds. Perth has two intersecting runways: RWY21/03 and RWY 24/06. There are specific noise abatement issues at Perth, so RWY 21 is the preferred runway with up to 5 knots of downwind. An ILS is available on runways 21, 24 and 03.

The available taxiways have a direct bearing on how traffic can be handled at Perth. For instance, there is a lack of fast exits, so heavies which use the full length may have to back-track to access taxiways. This places a heavy burden on the tower controllers managing arrivals and departures.

Jandakot Tower provides a GAAP service to general aviation traffic at Jandakot Airport. The airport sits directly under the approach for RWY 03 at Perth.

RAAF Base Pearce is only 12 miles north of Perth Airport. Careful control of traffic in both circuit areas is required. Within the Pearce Restricted Areas, RAAF controllers operating as Pearce Centre, Pearce Departures, Pearce Approach and Pearce Tower provide air traffic control. Some civil traffic is permitted on standard routes. Clearances are not available in the Stirling Restricted Areas (controlled by the RAN) and Lancelin Restricted Areas (controlled by the Army) when they are active.

Flightwatch is based in Brisbane and uses VHF and HF to provide briefing and operational information to pilots. Brisbane also provides HF communications to international and domestic traffic beyond VHF coverage. HF is gradually being superceded by satellite-based Controller-Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) which permits direct text-based communications between pilots and controllers.