Argentina: a hypothetical future state
383 airports assessed. 43 have no tower and meet a tier 1 to 3 rule (0 / 11 / 32). 37 towered airports fit tiers 1 to 3. A hypothetical set of 7 centres covers them. No national traffic table loaded.
Orange, teal, pink and grey dots are suggested tiers. Hollow rings are towered airports that fit a tier. White-ringed orange dots are hypothetical centres. Green outlined dots are remote or digital towers already listed on this site. Basemap: OpenStreetMap data via Protomaps.
What it could enable
- Service where there is none. 43 airports have no tower but meet a traffic or infrastructure rule. Remote service could give them separation or advisory service they cannot justify as a conventional tower. About 2.2 million people live within 50 km of one of them and of no towered airport.
- Fewer, shared positions. 37 towered airports fit tiers 1 to 3. Serving some of them from 7 shared centres could change how towers are staffed, equipped and replaced when they age.
- Different working pattern. A centre of about 11.4 airports lets part-time airports share a controller across the day, and lets busy periods at different airports fall on different positions.
- Awareness for isolated fields. 61 isolated airfields could get surface awareness (cameras and surveillance) without any air traffic service.
- Already moving. 1 airports here are listed on this site as remote or digital (operational, trial or planned). See them.
The gap in numbers
| Tier | No tower today | Towered today |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1: Full remote tower service | 0 | 33 |
| Tier 2: Part-time remote tower | 11 | 4 |
| Tier 3: Remote advisory (AFIS-like) | 32 | 0 |
| Tier 4: Surface awareness only | 61 | n/a |
| Large hub, left alone | n/a | 11 |
- Traffic on gap airports
- 0 passengers (0 airports with a figure)
- Population
- 45.7 million (World Bank 2024)
- People in cities of 15,000+
- 26.8 million
- Within 50 km of a gap airport
- 4.8 million
- ... and of no towered airport
- 2.2 million
- Near only an isolated airfield
- 1.2 million
- Airports with air-ground service already
- 0 of the gap airports have an AFIS-type frequency listed
Candidate airports
| Airport | Tier | Class | Passengers | Movements | Centre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aeroestación Yabotí AR-0767 · El Soberbio | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Capitan V A Almonacid Airport SANL · La Rioja | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Termas de Río Hondo international Airport SANR · Termas de Río Hondo | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Esquel Brigadier Antonio Parodi International Airport SAVE · Esquel | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Las Heras Airport SAVH · Las Heras | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| El Calafate - Commander Armando Tola International Airport SAWC · El Calafate | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Puerto Deseado Airport SAWD · Puerto Deseado | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Piloto Civil Norberto Fernández International Airport SAWG · Rio Gallegos | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Perito Moreno Jalil Hamer Airport SAWP · Perito Moreno | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Santa Teresita Airport SAZL · Santa Teresita | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Necochea Airport SAZO · Necochea | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Aeroclub San Martín SAMI · San Martin | Tier 3 | No tower, infrastructure proxy (no traffic figure) | n/a | n/a | |
| Gan Gan Field AR-0503 · | Tier 3 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Ushuaia Aeroclub Airport SAWO · Ushuaia | Tier 3 | No tower, infrastructure proxy (no traffic figure) | n/a | n/a | |
| Bell Ville Airport SA05 · Bell Ville | Tier 3 | No tower, infrastructure proxy (no traffic figure) | n/a | n/a |
Hypothetical centres
| Centre site | Airports | Tier 1 / 2 / 3 | Farthest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comodoro Pedro Zanni Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 25 | 13 / 5 / 7 | 492 km |
| Libertador Gral D Jose De San Martin Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 16 | 8 / 1 / 7 | 477 km |
| Ingeniero Aeronáutico Ambrosio L.V. Taravella International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 11 | 4 / 3 / 4 | 449 km |
| Presidente Perón International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 10 | 4 / 0 / 6 | 495 km |
| Gobernador Ramón Trejo Noel International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 6 | 2 / 2 / 2 | 488 km |
| General Enrique Mosconi International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 7 | 1 / 4 / 2 | 433 km |
| General Enrique Mosconi Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 5 | 1 / 0 / 4 | 235 km |
Responsible implementation
A tier on this page is a starting question. These are the topics any real plan would need to answer. Public guidance:
- EASA ED Decision 2023/005/R, guidance material on remote aerodrome air traffic services
- UK CAA: remote aerodrome air traffic services (CAP 670 and approval policy)
- EUROCAE ED-240A, minimum performance standards for remote tower optical systems
- FAA Digital Tower Systems page
- FAA AIP Program Guidance Letter 26-06 (design approval is not operational approval)
- ICAO Doc 4444, PANS-ATM, the procedures that remote services must still meet
Safety case and regulator approval
Each service needs its own safety case and approval before it carries traffic. A design approval for equipment is a different step from permission to run a service. This site's records name no regulator for Argentina yet; the national supervisory authority would decide.
Controller workforce and training
Remote work changes the job: new displays, new failure modes, and new competence checks. A plan would cover who moves, who trains, how existing controllers choose, and what happens to current staff and their conditions.
Communications and surveillance
Radio, video and surveillance links must meet the latency and quality the safety case assumes. Tier 1 and 2 airports need reliable cameras, redundant links and a surveillance picture for traffic that radar or ADS-B cannot see from the ground.
Contingency and redundancy
Every centre needs a fallback: a second path for data, a backup position, and a rule for what the airport does when a link fails (hold, divert, revert to advisory). Centres that serve many airports need a plan for losing all of them at once.
Cybersecurity
A centre is a single high-value target. It needs the same protections as other air traffic systems: segmented networks, supply-chain checks, logging, and tested recovery.
Community and labour engagement
Airports, airlines, pilots, unions, local governments and neighbours should be in the process before decisions, not after. Jobs can move away from small airports, and that is a real cost to a community.
Sources
- OurAirports: airports, runways, frequencies.
- GeoNames cities of 15,000 or more; World Bank population.
Towers already listed for Argentina: remote and digital sites in Argentina.