Aviation

Peter Kearney, air safety boss: ‘When you have humans, there is always potential for error’

Ireland’s air traffic management service expects to guide around 1.25 million planes through Irish airspace in 2024

Peter Kearney, AirNav. ‘We have an incredible safety management infrastructure. We have an independent dedicated unit just for safety management and compliance ... No matter what we do, the very first question is always related to safety’. Picture: Fergal Phillips

Walking around the air traffic control tower at Dublin Airport, two things stand out. One is the view, which on a clear day stretches as far as the Mourne Mountains to the north, and mountains in Wales to the east.

The second is the sense of calm – the atmosphere is a far cry from how air traffic control towers are displayed in movies.

For Peter Kearney, head of AirNav, the new air traffic management ...