High-speed aviation intranet in operation

Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department (CAD) began operating a new high-speed aviation intranet service using the Air Traffic Services Message Handling System (AMHS) on December 29.

CAD is operating this system with the Civil Aviation Authority of Macao, the first city-pair in the Asia Pacific region providing this full, aeronautical message-handling service.

Previously, aeronautical and weather messages were conveyed over the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network. That network was designed mainly for ground-to-ground communications within the aviation community using fixed point-to-point leased lines. Messages were limited to 1,800-character texts and transmitted at low to medium speeds.  

The AMHS operates over the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN), a global data network, or “aviation intranet,” that provides ground-to-ground, as well as air-to-ground, communications to support operations of future aviation systems.  

AMHS provides additional benefits, such as high-speed data transmission, more reliable message delivery, unlimited message length, support of graphical information (e.g., charts and diagrams), weather images instead of plain text, and Web-based applications for aviation users to view, upload and download various aeronautical information and services.

Hong Kong is one of eight International Civil Aviation Organization-designated ATN backbone sites in the region. The CAD plans to work with other adjoining sites, such as Bangkok and Beijing, before year’s end.