Argentine air traffic control not Y2k certified

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Friday November 19 3:17 PM ET

Argentine Air-Traffic Control Not Y2K Certified

By Andrew Hay

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - None of Argentina's five air-traffic-control radar systems is certified as being fully Year 2000 compliant, although the one controlling 80 percent of traffic will be by mid-December, the nation's Air Force said Friday.

The Argentine Air Force -- which handles air-traffic control in Argentina -- had independently tested all five systems and found them ready to handle the Year 2000 date change, said Chief of Staff for Regional Air Command Horacio Orefice.

But none of the companies that built the systems say the mainly 1980s technology involved is fully Y2K compliant -- a seal of approval many commercial airlines would like to see.

``We don't see any problems,'' Orefice told reporters in a press briefing at Air Force headquarters. ``We've taken steps to ensure those components that aren't certified (Y2K ready) are fully functioning. We don't have the budget to get certification from some companies.''

At issue is a coding glitch that, starting Jan. 1 2000, could crash older or unprepared computers that read the last two digits of the date as 1900 instead of 2000.

Many air-traffic-control systems are non-date sensitive and it would not matter even if their systems could not read the date correctly, the Air Force said.

Systems that could be affected are air-traffic-control programs that track scheduled flights. If a system set up to monitor these flights failed, controllers would have to switch to manual control to guide in flights and help them take off.

The air-traffic-control system at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza international airport controls 80 percent of traffic and is being replaced with a new Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT - news) system at a cost of around $1.5 million.

Orefice said that the new system would be in place on Dec. 15 -- the day Argentina has to report its Y2K readiness to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an agency of the United Nations, and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 260 airlines worldwide.

Orefice said ICAO measures Y2K compliance not on what companies said but on how the Argentine Air Force rated its Y2K readiness. IATA, on the other hand, demands radar systems be certified by their manufacturers. Orefice said IATA, at the present time, is pleased with Argentina's Y2K progress.

He said Argentina would spend $2.5 million in total getting its radar ready for the date rollover. Orefice characterized company certification as a ``business'' to generate sales of new systems to replace old ones that often worked well.

``Airlines have told us they are going to keep up flights,'' Orefice said.

Orefice said Argentina has put in place rigorous contingency plans to cope with possible Y2K problems.

Between Dec. 31 and Jan. 2, following ICAO guidelines, flights departing Ezeiza have been staggered to leave every 10 to 15 minutes, instead of every eight minutes, in order to accommodate possible delays. Delays should be no greater than 30 minutes, Orefice said. He said daily traffic at Ezeiza should only go down by one flight a day to an average of 54 flights on peak days and 36 flights on non-peak days.

Argentina's other four air-traffic-control systems have yet to be certified Y2K compliant by manufacturers. They are very unlikely to get the stamp. With a full upgrade and testing taking up to six months, it is much too late, even if the cash were available.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), November 19, 1999


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