Airways' Technology and Support

Technology and Support (T&S) is the team of approximately 130 staff with the vital role of developing and maintaining all the equipment which assists pilots and controllers.

Airways T & S

Technicians are based around the country ready to move quickly to fix or restore equipment vital to the work of Airways New Zealand. The many radar and equipment stations throughout the country are linked to a nerve centre in the Christchurch Centre.

Here, staff monitor a bank of computer screens which will immediately warn of a problem or outage anywhere on the network. Monitoring staff then either correct the problem through remote means, or call on the technical support staff or applicable agency (such as Telecom) to fix the problem.

Other staff in the division work on projects dealing with the planning and procurement of new systems for the company, provide software support for the air traffic system, and maintain Airways' extensive telecommunications and internal computer systems.

Like the controllers, the T&S staff are also highly trained and professional employees. Airways' Software Engineers work with sophisticated, real-time and safety-critical systems. T&S recruits experienced and qualified engineers and technicians and then provides up to 18 months of in-house training and on-the-job experience to bring them up to speed with Airways' equipment and processes.

Airways T & S

A prime example of the work performed by our Software Engineers is the Technology Development Centre in Christchurch. This facility has been opened as a direct result of the alliance between Airways and Lockheed Martin. The two companies work together to develop and market air traffic control systems, and together won the contract to supply Airways' OCS to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Centre also customises SkyLine systems for customers in Asia and the Pacific.