Air traffic control and how it is organized is about to change. In Sweden, the Air Traffic Navigation Services (Luftfartsverket) together with SAAB have developed an alternative to traditional air traffic control; Remote Tower Services (RTS). RTS means that a digital tower with multiple cameras is placed at the airport instead of a traditional air traffic control tower. The air traffic controllers control the traffic via a Remote Tower Center (RTC), often situated several miles from the airport. 2015, as the first country in the world, the Air Traffic Navigation Services together with SAAB launched RTS in Sweden at Örnsköldsviks airport which operates from a RTC in Sundsvall. In the forthcoming years RTS is about to be implemented at four Swedish airports. Using Everett Rogers theory of diffusion and theories of public-private partnership this paper examines RTS as an innovation. The study is based on qualitative interviews with representatives from the Air Traffic Navigation Services, Swedavia and Swedish Pilot Association.The study shows that RTS as an innovation can be seen as a consequence of the deregulation of the air traffic control market in 2010 whereas digitalization is another contributing factor. The study also shows that the implementation of RTS can be seen as unilateral. There have been deliberative elements with municipalities and other actors but some of these elements have been symbolic.

Den här rapporten är en utredning och analys av lämpliga arbetsuppgifter och deras nödvändiga verktyg och hjälpmedel för en skiftledare, Watch Supervisor, vid ett framtida center för fjärrstyrda flygledningstorn, Remote Tower. Ett center för fjärrstyrda flygledningstorn är en centraliserad enhet med uppgiften att flygleda och kontrollera flygsäkerheten på och nära en eller flera flygplatser. Utgångspunkten för datainsamlingen har varit intervjuer med verksamma flygledare och skiftledare på LFV, Sveriges statliga verk för flygtrafiktjänst. Studiebesök har även gjorts vid olika enheter, både flygledartorn och radarkontrollcentraler, däribland Sundsvall RTC som är världens första central för fjärrstyrd flygledning godkänd att sättas i drift. Insamlad data har kompilerats och analyserats och en rekommendation presenteras i slutet av denna rapport angående arbetsuppgifter och verktyg för ovan nämnda skiftledare i ett RTC. Resultatet visar att rollen kommer ha stora likheter med befintliga skiftledarpositioner i den svenska flygledningen.

The Multiple Remote Tower Center concept (mRTC) is a cutting edge project which allows one air traffic control officer (ATCO) to be in charge of multiple remotely situated airports simultaneously. When implemented, it will revolutionise how air traffic is managed at smaller airports and allow for increased efficiency and decreased operational costs. Consequently, at the time of writing a lot of effort is going into evaluating this new way of air traffic management from a safety perspective. Air traffic management has been defined as an issue maintaining situational awareness and exercising control. This thesis aims to investigate how the phenomenon target fascination affects the ATCOs ability to exercise control over its controlled airspace and maintain its situation awareness. It does so by creating a baseline scenario of work in a mRTC, and then comparing the ATCOs performance in the baseline scenario with its performance in the same corresponding scenario, but with elements of target fascination introduced. The differences in the scenarios are analysed using the Contextual Control Model, the Extended Control Model and a holistic framework for studying situation awareness. The analysis shows that target fascination does affect the ATCOs ability to maintain control, but not radically so, and only for a short period of time. The target fascination forces the ATCO to rely on information in the immediate environment to a higher degree than during regular work, as opposed to making decisions based on a holistic understanding of the situation and high level goals. However, once the understanding of the situation have been re-established, the level of control quickly returns to normal levels. Situation awareness is thus a key concept in maintaining control. The situation awareness analysis show that target fascination affects situation awareness by causing the ATCOs understanding of the situation to become outdated without the ATCOs knowledge. Because of this, there may be developments in the situation that the ATCO is not aware of, which hinders it from acting as it normally would. In some cases an intervention from an external actor or element may be necessary to break the fascination and re-establish the ATCOs understanding for the situation. As soon as the fascination is broken, the ATCO quickly takes steps to re-establish its situation awareness and return to normal operations.