Remote monitoring of airports is gaining importance. Air traffic controllers no longer need to be directly at the airport, but can even monitor multiple airports from a central "remote tower center." At the AERO trade fair in Friedrichshafen (April 9-12), the DLR will present a "virtual tower."

Despite a significant increase in civil air traffic of over 10 percent, the Swiss air traffic control agency Skyguide recorded a loss of CHF 18.9 million in 2024. The main reasons were high investments in technical infrastructure and regulatory flight fees.

 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 takeoffs are hitting the ground running at the end of the current year. Volocopter, a startup founded in 2011, is close to the finish line for obtaining type certification for its urban "eVTOL," the VoloCity, but has now slipped into insolvency.

Lilium, the manufacturer of vertical takeoff and landing electric aircraft, whose fate was already sealed with its bankruptcy, has found an investor at the last minute, just in time for Christmas. A "Mobile Uplift Corporation" will allow it to hire 775 of the previously laid-off employees.

 Photo: Volocopter

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

 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, at around 4:30 a.m. CET, a plane operated by Swiftair, a third-party carrier operating on behalf of DHL, en route from Leipzig to Vilnius, caught fire while attempting an emergency landing about one kilometer from the airport.

Photo: DLR

According to reports from the German news agency DPA and the US news agency Bloomberg, the flying taxi manufacturer Volocopter is about to be taken over by Chinese shareholder Geely, which previously held a 40 percent stake in the company. eVTOL competitor Lilium filed for bankruptcy 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.