With the great joint efforts of all parties, full preparations, massive assessments and tests, the Electronic Flight Progress Strip system (EFPS) of Macau International Airport (MIA) in Control Tower was approved by Macau Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) and officially put into operation on 18th December 2020. Since then, the era of paper flight progress strip in Control Tower at MIA had come to an end, and air traffic control automation has taken another big step forward. The official launch of EFPS greatly improves the working efficiency of air traffic control services, reduces the workload of the frontline controllers effectively. It serves as a great protection layer for the safe and efficient operation of the Control Tower and ensures that the air traffic control capacity could match the airport capacity, and maximizes satisfaction for the need of expansion and development of the airport in the near future. At the same time, the system saves paper consumption significantly, to add great value for environmental protection and energy saving.

Flight progress strip is a traditional auxiliary means used by air traffic controllers when providing control services to aircraft operation. It is usually printed on a long piece of paper which contains various important flight information including aircraft call signs, departure and destination aerodromes, expected departure time or arrival time, type of aircraft, standard routes, cruising altitude, etc. It is a “must” tool and essential for air traffic control. The various instructions and flight status data recorded in the strip during the actual flight operation also serve as an important source of information for subsequent flight safety assessment and investigation purpose. Since the operation of Macau International Airport, the paper flight progress strip has been used at the Control Tower for more than 25 years.

Macau Aerodrome Traffic Zone (ATZ) is located on the border of Guangzhou and Hong Kong Flight Information Regions. All MIA inbound and outbound aircraft require frequent coordination with neighboring air traffic control services. With the gradual increase of air traffic at MIA in recent years, manual coordination is a heavy burden for controllers. In addition, with the escalation in demand by the aviation industry for various operational data, the traditional paper flight progress strip can no longer meet the needs of the rapid development for air traffic control services, and system automation is trending to be a “must”. After preliminary evaluation and bidding work, Macau International Airport Company Limited (CAM) finally decided to appoint Airport Information Management Technology Company Limited (AIMS) and Shenzhen Air Traffic Control Station Air Traffic Management Industry Development Company Limited to develop MIA’s Electronic Flight Progress Strip System (EFPS).

Apart from all the basic air traffic control information and data requirement, the EFPS system has been designed to equip with Runway Occupied warning function to increase controllers’ situation awareness especially for runway incursion, which in term can greatly reduce the probability of runway incursion, and thus promotes runway safety. Besides, the system also reserves interfaces for data exchange among CDM and ACDM systems in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), which facilitates the future integration and data exchange of related systems. This lays a solid foundation for a unified GBA air traffic control coordination platform, aiming to improve the transparency and fairness of aircraft slot allocation, thus enhance the satisfaction level of passengers using Macau International Airport.

Traditional Flight Progress Strip

Electronic Flight Progress Strip Operational Monitor

Electronic Flight Progress Strip (Runway Blocked Notice)