Delays still dog the state-of-the -art air traffic control centre at Swanwick. Keith Hamilton takes a look at the latest moves to get the centre off the ground

INTENSE pressure is now increasing for the UK's long delayed new air traffic control centre in Hampshire to be brought into service early next year at the latest.

However, there is a suggestion that it could now be the autumn of 2002 before Swanwick finally comes online.

This comes as, controversially, a consortium of seven UK airlines assumed management control of the country's air traffic control system.

The Airline Group has taken over at probably the most testing time for the present creaking system, with the skies full of aircraft as the main holiday rush takes off.

The £623m centre at Swanwick was originally supposed to open in 1996, but the project has faced repeated postponements after problems arose with its highly complex radar system.

Despite the desperate need for the air traffic control centre, which is already more than £200m over budget, to enter service fully, more doubts are now emerging that the complex will not meet its latest deadline.

January 2002, which would be a relatively quiet time in air travel, is the latest launch date for Swanwick, so the centre can settle down and operators can prepare for the next busy summer season.

Richard Everitt, chief executive of the National Air Traffic Services said he was confident that Swanwick would be operating by next January but he did say an alternative date in the following autumn had also been identified.

Mr Everitt said Nats was going through a "difficult period'' with 50 area controllers being taken off active duty each week for training at Swanwick during the busy

summer months.

"As I am learning, this is technically a very demanding project,'' said Mr Everitt, formerly group planning director for airports operator BAA.

"Milestones are being met as we go along and there are two or three big ones to come.''

The Airline Group took a 46 per cent share of Nats in a deal which netted the government £800m.

Trade unions have also joined the chorus of concerns about rushing through the transfer of control to Swanwick, fearing that the

system and the operators were at risk of being "overloaded.''

Iain Findlay, aviation officer for IPMS, the air traffic controllers trade union, said: " We hope the transfer to the Airline Group is a step forward but we still have worries for the future of the air traffic control service.''

Nats is to invest £1bn in new technology in the next decade to increase capacity to handle three million flights a year by 2010, compared to two million last year.