New computers crucial to modernizing the U.S. air traffic control system have run into serious problems and may not be fully operational by the end of this year when the current system is supposed to be replaced, a government watchdog said Wednesday.
The $2.1 billion computer system has misidentified aircraft and had trouble processing radar information, Calvin Scovel, the Transportation Department's inspector general, told a House panel. Air traffic controllers at a Federal Aviation Administration radar center in Salt Lake City, where the new computers are being tested, also have had difficulty transferring responsibility for planes to other controllers, he said.

Several major airlines safely flew test flights without passengers over Europe on Sunday despite official warnings about the dangers of a volcanic ash plume, fueling a corporate push to end an economically devastating ban on commercial air traffic.
The announcement prompted some airline officials to wonder whether authorities had overreacted to concerns that the tiny particles of volcanic ash could jam up the engines of passenger jets. The possibility that the ash had thinned or dispersed over parts of Europe heightened pressure from airline officials losing hundreds of millions of dollars a day to end a flight stoppage that has thrown global travel into chaos and left millions stranded far from home.

German air traffic controllers ended two days of talks saying they have reached a preliminary agreement not to strike, Germany's air traffic authority DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung said in a statement on Friday.
The DFS and trade union GdF clashed over disagreements on working hours and pay. Both parties have agreed to formalise the agreement by April 28, DFS said in a statement.

The overall passenger traffic at European airports continues to show signs of improvement, increasing by 4.0% in February 2010 compared with February 2009. The overall freight traffic among European airports increased 19.8% in February 2010 when compared with the corresponding month in 2009. Despite the fact that these traffic figures were affected by industrial action, particularly in France and Germany, they nevertheless confirm the improving trend registered since November 2009.
However, this latest return to growth still compares poorly with 2008 traffic levels – February 2010 passenger traffic registers a decrease of -10.1% when compared with February 2008, while the same comparison for freight shows a decrease of -13.7%.

Air traffic controllers directing planes flying over half of Russia's European territory and hundreds of other workers have gone on a hunger strike to demand the ouster of their boss over "totalitarian" working conditions, their union said Wednesday.

The union said flight safety would not be affected.

The federal agency that manages flights in Russian airspace, the State ATM Corporation, denied that any air traffic controllers had gone on a strike.

About 2,000 air traffic controllers and technical workers fr om 34 airports nationwide are taking part in the hunger strike during off-duty hours, said Sergei Kovalyov, president of the Federal Union of Air Traffic Controllers.

"They don't fast at work because flight safety has to be ensured," Kovalyov told The Moscow Times.

The new air traffic control (ATC) tower at Kandahar Air Field (KAF) is significantly improving efficiency and safety for both military and commercial aircraft operating from the country’s busiest airport.
The €145 million project included all the necessary air traffic management equipment such as radars, precision navigation equipment, and meteorological systems.
The tower became operational March 30 after nearly two years of planning and construction. It was funded by NATO as part of the alliance’s commitment to the economic development of Afghanistan.
The airfield has become one of the busiest single-runway airports in the world. In 2009, more than 325,000 takeoffs and landings occurred, and data from the first quarter of 2010 suggests KAF operations have again increased by 50 percent compared to the first quarter of 2009. 

Two air traffic controllers at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, who were handling aircraft that came “dangerously close” over the Delhi airspace earlier this month, have been suspended till further investigations.
In a statement on Thursday, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said the ATCs were de-rostered as per standard procedure when necessary investigations were being carried out in the April 5 incident involving Air India and Kingfisher Airlines planes.
The national carrier, however, denied involvement of their aircraft in the incident and, in a statement, said “as per our preliminary inquiries, no such incident has been reported by the operating crew”.

Greek air traffic controllers plan two 24-hour strikes next week, closing all Greek airports in protest at government austerity measures and moves to overhaul civil aviation services.
Greek civil servants will strike for 24 hours on April 22 and may hold further industrial action next month to protest at “grossly disproportionate adjustments”, Spyros Papaspyros, chairman of the federation of civil servants’ unions, or ADEDY, said on April 13.
Air traffic controllers will take part in this strike with the same demands and plan a further stoppage on April 23 to protest at the proposed reorganization of the Civil Aviation Authority, the Air Traffic Controllers’ Association of Greece, or EEEKE, said in two separate statements on its web site.

Eurocontrol has said flights could be disrupted for another 48 hours by ash spewing from a volcano in Iceland.
Up to 5,000 flights could have been affected by the end of Thursday.
The UK, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands closed their airspaces.

France shut down 24 airports in the north of the country, including the main hub of Paris-Charles de Gaulle, while Germany's Berlin and Hamburg airports were also closed on Thursday evening.

A union representing German air traffic controllers says it has decided to stage strikes starting early next week.

Walkouts could begin as early as Monday because negotiations over working conditions with the Deutsche Flugsicherung -- which runs air traffic control -- have broken down, GdF union's spokesman Bernd Bockstahler told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Bockstahler said the exact timing and the scale of the walkouts would be announced with 24 hours' notice. He hinted that the strike could begin at one or two mid-size airports, disrupting air travel but not paralyzing one of the country's biggest international hubs such as Frankfurt or Munich.
The dispute centers on working hours. GdF says it represents 3,200 Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) employees. Negotiations between the union and the state-owned company broke down earlier this month.