Aspiring air traffic controllers learn the ropes

Aspiring air traffic controllers at an airport which is shortly due to reopen to passengers are using a special simulator to learn the ropes before they get to do the job for real.

New recruits at Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) are learning how to coordinate the safe movement of aircraft in the sky and on the ground using the computer simulator.

DSA closed in 2022 with its owners declaring it unviable, but City of Doncaster Council hopes to fully reopen the site in April 2028.

Andy Hudson, DSA's head of air traffic services, said the simulator meant instructors "can choose where the aircraft are and what they're doing - that's why you can create exercises looking like the live environment".

At least 20 people have so far been recruited into air traffic control and air traffic services roles at DSA ahead of its planned reopening, including nine trainees.

Hudson said that since being taken on, those trainees had been taking part in practical and theoretical training towards their tower and radar qualifications.

To help the student controllers do their work with the simulator, air traffic services assistants like Sam Johnson act as a virtual pilots.

Johnson explained that he and his colleagues sat in a room next door to the students, controlling virtual "planes" which the aspiring controllers must deal with safely and efficiently.

The role of assistants like him was vital to get the student controllers ready for their work at DSA, Johnson said.

"We've got no real traffic to work with, so there's no way they an validate," he explained.

"So the simulator keeps their skills sharp and it allows them to train."

Liam Watts, one of those training at DSA, previously spent 14 years in the Royal Navy as a military air traffic controller.

He said many of the skills required for civil aviation were similar to those he previously used in the military.

"It's a constantly changing puzzle that you have to fix constantly. You need to keep calm," he said.

"The more you train using equipment like this, the more familiar you get with scenarios, with traffic levels, phraseology and the rules."

At the time of its closure in 2022, the airport's then owners Peel Group said the site was "financially unviable".

City of Doncaster Council has since formed an arm's-length company, supported by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, to reopen it.

According to DSA operator Fly Doncaster, passenger flights were expected to resume at Easter in 2028, although freight flights were expected sooner.

The first large jet to land at DSA since its closure touched down at the airport in April.

The Boeing 727, owned by DSA-based 2Excel Aviation, landed after a test flight in preparation for returning permanently to the site when the facility reopens.

Christian Foster, Fly Doncaster director, said recruiting air traffic controllers was a constant challenge as there were not enough of them to work in all the UK's airports.

Foster said all airports were "constantly advertising" jobs for air traffic controllers.

Meanwhile, he said he believed there were many good reasons to work at DSA.

"It's rare for them to be at the beginning of a journey, helping re-open the airport," Foster said.

"Doncaster is extremely well connected, in the heart of the UK.

"With the cost of living, the house price point of view, it's a big factor and we've got a fantastic schools system. What's not to love about Doncaster?"

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