Chile enhances airspace communication with Frequentis Comsoft

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation in Chile (Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil - DGAC) has deployed aeronautical message handling system (AMHS) from Frequentis Comsoft, increasing its communication capability and fully supporting the ICAO basic and extended AMHS service profiles. The solution replaces the countries previous AMHS system.

Frequentis Comsoft’s Aeronautical Integrated Data Exchange Agent – Next Generation (AIDA-NG) was designed in close cooperation with leading air navigation service providers (ANSPs). The solution for DGAC Chile consists of one complete operational, redundant, system and one training system, at two different DGAC sites in Santiago de Chile.

“Airspace communication is vital for safe air traffic management and we are pleased to have placed our trust in the expertise of Frequentis Comsoft, with a message handling system that is operation in over 60 countries worldwide. The very demanding schedule was achieved, without any delays for the delivery. Since the system was put into operation it has proved to be very reliable, enhancing our message handling capabilities.”, AMHS Project Team, DGAC Chile.

Chile, in Latin America, is over 5500 kilometers long and Chile's air traffic services (ATS) are responsible for a huge part of the southern Pacific and Antarctic airspace. The region has prioritised communication, navigation and surveillance upgrades in recent decades and is proud of its excellent safety records.

“We are pleased to have provided DGAC with a modern aeronautical message handling system, acquired for the purpose of increasing safety standards and regulatory compliance in their communications, navigation and surveillance systems. AIDA-NG systems can switch a permanent load of more than 900 messages per second and are prepared for all future aeronautical messaging environments.”, says Thomas Hoffmann, Managing Director Frequentis Comsoft.

Chile is now the fourth country in the South American region to trust AIDA-NG as their core message handling system, after Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, the latter being an inter-regional-gateway.

Frequentis Comsoft’s AIDA-NG is a unified message handling switch enabling AFTN, Common ICAO Data Interchange Network (CIDIN), and AMHS messages to be exchanged, based on the European ATM Communication Gateway (ECG) software. High message loads do not affect the exceptional response time of the management interface. Overload situations are prevented by extensive flow control mechanisms. Excellent performance and operational service availability are guaranteed.