By establishing another operational AMHS link, the Middle East has further substantiated and expanded their leading position as flagship ICAO region for the implementation of AMHS. Recently published, ICAO COM charts depict the Middle Eastern AMHS centres of Jeddah, Cairo, Amman, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Muscat as interconnecting chain of fully operational AMHS nodes.
The vast majority of the respective AMHS centres operate a message handling system of brand AIDA-NG supplied by market-leader COMSOFT. AIDA-NG’s sophisticated architecture integrates different network types in a centralised concept and incorporates easily intelligible procedures making the AFTN / AMHS transition vastly transparent to its operators.
Beforehand, to level the playing-field for all participants and to build this important undertaking on firm ground, the German supplier had cooperated with ANSPs in the region to organise AMHS workshops in Cairo and Abu Dhabi. The Egyptian project manager Mahmoud Ramadan expressed his content in the professionalism and effort in this matter and is “looking forward to continue this successful series of mutual projects.”
AMHS transports information relevant for air traffic control such as flight plans, NOTAMs and meteorological messages and will inevitably replace AFTN. Moreover, the new network type is capable of transporting arbitrary content like weather charts or future Digital NOTAMs and is not limited to text only like its predecessor AFTN. By this, an essential prerequisite was created to provide globally integrated air traffic management. Furthermore, the regionally established AMHS links provide clear evidence that the new technology is ripe for the comprehensive and broad application. Further connections in the region have already been envisaged.