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Skyguide’s Head of Technology, Klaus Meier, said on Thursday that the original pace of modernisation was making the system vulnerable.

According to Meier, a “big bang”, i.e. modernisation in one step, would have been unrealistic for safety and cost reasons.

The head of technology also attributed the numerous breakdowns that have occurred in recent months to the ongoing modernisation process.

The project, which cost around CHF300 million and includes digitalisation and the virtual merger of the Geneva and Zurich air traffic control centres, was originally planned to run from 2014 to 2024.

However, skyguide has now moved away from this schedule. “We underestimated the time horizon in this safety environment,” said Meier and assumes that this process will take another 10 years.

He is still convinced that the path taken is the right one and that there is no turning back.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga