Remote monitoring of airports is becoming increasingly important. Air traffic controllers no longer need to be directly at the airport, but can even monitor several airports from a central "Remote Tower Center". The German Aerospace Center (DLR) will present a "Virtual Tower" at AERO in Friedrichshafen (April 9-12).

Despite a significant increase in civil air traffic of over 10 percent, the Swiss air navigation service provider Skyguide incurred a loss of 18.9 million Swiss francs in 2024. The main reasons were high investments in technical infrastructure and regulatory air traffic charges.

 Merz, Bristol

After eight years in office, Alex Bristol will step down as head of air traffic control Skyguide on October 31 of this year. His successor will be Peter Merz, currently commander of the Swiss Air Force, who is scheduled to take over the position on November 1, 2025.

Vertical takeoff and landing companies are facing a harsh blow at the end of the year. Founded in 2011, the start-up Volocopter, although on the verge of obtaining type certification for its urban "eVTOL," the VoloCity, has nevertheless slipped into insolvency.

Lilium, the manufacturer of electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, whose fate seemed sealed with insolvency, has found an investor at the last minute, just in time for Christmas. A "Mobile Uplift Corporation" will allow the company to take on 775 of the employees who had already been laid off.

 Photo: Volocopter

The German Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs (BMDV), under Volker Wissing, would like to see "Advanced Air Mobility" implemented in Germany as early as the beginning of the next decade. A strategy outlining test routes starting in 2026 was defined in Berlin today.

 Photo: admin.ch

The Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) has appointed Mathias Gantenbein as the new Deputy Director of the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), effective January 1, 2025. He currently heads the Strategy and Command Support division there.

 Source: MDR

DHL confirmed yesterday that in the early hours of Monday morning, a Swiftair aircraft, a third-party provider operating on behalf of DHL, caught fire around 4:30 a.m. CET while attempting an emergency landing about one kilometer from the airport on its way from Leipzig to Vilnius.

Photo: DLR

According to reports from the German news agency DPA and the US news agency Bloomberg, the flying taxi manufacturer Volocopter is on the verge of being acquired by its Chinese shareholder Geely, which currently holds a 40 percent stake in the company. eVTOL competitor Lilium filed for insolvency in October.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued regulations mid-week for the qualification and training of pilots who will be allowed to fly air taxis in the future. It is described as "the first completely new category since the introduction of the helicopter in the 1940s.".

TractEasy builds autonomous towing solutions for aviation and industrial customers who rely on driverless technology. At Spartanburg Airport in the US, an EZTow now transports cargo along a 1.6 km route in mixed traffic for loading and unloading cargo jets on the apron.

Strong vibrations can have devastating effects on aircraft and, in extreme cases, lead to crashes. At the DLR Institute of Aeroelasticity in Göttingen, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) conducted live tests to ensure the future control system of the "VoloCity" air transporter.

 Zurich Airport AG

Air traffic in Swiss airspace has increased by double digits (10-14%) every month since the beginning of the year, reaching 99.5% of the 2019 traffic volume by the end of the first half of the year, according to Swiss air traffic control. 94.6% of all flights were on time.

Photo: Skyguide

A global IT outage today affected the Swiss air navigation service provider Skyguide to such an extent that air traffic capacity had to be temporarily reduced by 30 percent. Reportedly, the disruption was caused by a Windows update.

Heavy rainfall on Tuesday led to flooding of the basement of the air traffic control center in Geneva. To prevent the air traffic control systems from overheating and to ensure the control room remained cool, the number of arrivals and departures was reduced. Normal operations have since resumed, Skyguide announced this morning.