French Air Traffic controllers..

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

..are gonna love this:

London City first in UK to get remote air traffic control

Soon they'll be able to retire early en masse.  I've travelled across large chunks of the globe I never expected thanks to them.  At 39,000 feet it wasn't worth the effort.

[PeteB99]

When that item came on the BBC news the other day I was watching the TV with the sound off (Living room turbo session with sound track from my iPod). The guy doing the sign language translation at the side seemed to mime a crashing plane a couple of times.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

When that item came on the BBC news the other day I was watching the TV with the sound off (Living room turbo session with sound track from my iPod). The guy doing the sign language translation at the side seemed to mime a crashing plane a couple of times.

The wonders of modern tech, eh?

[Kim]

The guy doing the sign language translation at the side seemed to mime a crashing plane a couple of times.

In the absence of context, the difference between a crash and a landing you can walk away from is mostly going to be in the facial expression.

[trekker12]

I'm failing to see the benefit.

In many cases applying such technology improves efficiency or enables less manpower to operate something but you still need the same number of controllers to operate the same number of aeroplanes, so other than saving a commute into the city I'm not seeing it? Perhaps someone can enlighten me?

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

From the news item:

the new system will allow controllers to zoom in for a better view and put radar data onto the screen to track aircraft.
BBC transport correspondent Richard Westcott says a critical new safety feature means the cameras will be able to pick out rogue drones near the airport, as well as light the runway at night.

However, having visited PPRUNE I see that opinion is divided and no conclusion reached FWIW.   This perhaps was the most realistic reply, V12 message#2055:

In a couple of decades there will be loads of driverless cars, the airline F/O will be replaced by shared ground operators, and there will be digital towers in many places.
It will happen and we all will accept them as normal; so let's not fight it but just work to ensure they are effective and safe. You can argue whether they will be safe in 2019, but be sure you will have accepted them by 2029. It's just inevitability.
New technologies always have pros and cons: a driverless car doesn't get drunk, doesn't speed and allows you to do other things whilst travelling; inevitably they will make a lot of driving jobs unnecessary. But where are the telephone switchboard operators, TV repairmen, milkmen, Flight Engineers today? or the 10,000's that worked in factories building cars etc that have been replaced by robots?
The challenge is for Govts and employers to create the new jobs of tomorrow.

And remember the relentless drive for efficiency and lower cost (of everything) is driven entirely by you and me; consumers default to the least cost purchases most of the time, otherwise EZY, RYR, Amazon and Sports Direct (as examples) wouldn't have prospered so much. We demand cost savings every time we buy on the net today, and in doing so we are killing off our own jobs for the medium term. We are to blame.