Thales Australia builds ATM R&D centre in Melbourne

Thales Australia has started construction of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Air Traffic Management (CASIA) for research and development into air traffic management in Melbourne as part of efforts to place it at the forefront of new technologies in the area.

Chris Jenkins, Thales Australia’s CEO, said CASIA represented the next chapter of ATM in Australia and will also be used by Thales’s partners and other stakeholders to train for and develop new generation ATM systems. “CASIA is the result of long term investment in our ATM business, which has grown from just a few employees 15 years ago to a global centre of excellence employing 400 people in highly skilled jobs,” he said.

The CASIA announcement comes after Thales Australia announced that Taiwan had completed final system acceptance of its advanced ATM system, which will greatly increase the capabilities of its Air Navigation and Weather Service. The Eurocat system was developed in Melbourne and implemented in Taiwan by Thales Australia.