Seychelles, an archipelagic state located off the East Coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, currently provides air navigation service in its Flight Information Region (FIR), which covers an area of approximately 2.63 million square kilometres.
The geographical location of Seychelles, between 4°-10° south of the equator and 480km-1,600km off the East Coast of Africa, make the islands a convergent point for the bulk of aviation traffic, connecting east to west.
Therefore, to ensure compliance with international standards, and to elevate the level of service being provided to air operators, the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA), embarked on a project to modernise its communications systems. This would ensure a more efficacious, reliable, and safe operations to aircraft within the Seychelles FIR.
It became imperative for the authority to find the right partner to work with to ensure it delivered on this important objective. SCAA signed a contract with Sparfell Communications, together with its partner Micro Elektronische Producten B.V. (MEP) , in May 2020. For the past two years, MEP has been preparing to configure and install a Voice Communication Control System (VCCS) for Seychelles.
The system will facilitate communication for the Air Traffic Controller to pilots using the Seychelles FIR. It will be used at the area control centre, the approach, and the aerodrome control of the two main islands of Seychelles, Mahe and Praslin. In total, there are 14 positions, 16 very high frequency (VHF) transmitters and receivers, six high frequency (HF) receivers, and two HF transmitters connected.
In addition to the above, MEP and its partner, Sparfell, has implemented best signal selection based upon European standard (ED137), even with the existence of a mix of digital and analogue radios. For analogue radios the gateway CRU995 ED137 was used.
The commissioning of the project took place in May 2023.
MEP chief executive officer of MEP Mr. Werner van Eck remarked “It was a real pleasure to work together with the excellent teams of SCAA and Sparfell on this project. We are proud that Seychelles is using our VCS.”
SCAA chief executive officer Mr. Garry Albert, remarked, “We are proud of this accomplishment which reflects our solid commitment to modernise the Seychelles air traffic service to a high level. The collaboration by the professional team from MEP and SCAA ensured that today, our well-trained personnel is equipped with a modern system, to provide an excellent service to air operators from all over the world using our FIR.”