Singapore Picks Thales for NexGen AI Air Traffic Control — One Million Movements by 2030

Singapore is not waiting for congested skies to become a crisis.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has selected Thales to build the country’s next-generation Air Traffic Management System (ATMS) and new air traffic control radars — a landmark contract aimed at keeping one of Asia’s busiest airspaces safe, scalable, and digitally hardened as regional traffic keeps climbing.

The NexGen ATMS is scheduled to enter operational service by 2030. Design target: safely and efficiently handle up to one million aircraft movements a year.

That is not a vanity number. It is Singapore planning for volume growth while the airspace stays small, dense, and strategically exposed. For a hub that sits on major Asia–Middle East–Europe and Asia–Australia corridors, air traffic management is not just civil aviation — it is national infrastructure.

Replacing LORADS III

NexGen will replace the current LORADS III system with Thales’ TopSky – ATC One automation suite.

This is not a cold start. Thales and CAAS already have joint history on LORADS III. The new contract extends that partnership into a fully integrated, AI-enabled control environment — with knowledge transfer built in. CAAS officers will join the project office in France, alongside localisation work in Singapore. That matters: Singapore is buying capability and continuity, not just a black-box vendor install.

What the system actually does

At the core is TopSky – ATC One, Thales’ next-generation ATC automation platform. Per Thales, the solution already underpins management of roughly 40% of the world’s airspace. Controllers get real-time decision-support tools, tighter workflows, and a modern human-machine interface designed for high-tempo operations.

Attached to that is a first: Singapore will host the first deployment of TopSky – Sequencer, Thales’ AI-based arrival and departure sequencing tool. The pitch is practical — optimise flows to cut delays, fuel burn, and emissions. In plain terms: less stacking, less holding, more predictable runway and airspace use as traffic rises.

Cybersecurity is not an afterthought. NexGen is built to meet ICAO and Singapore standards, with an open architecture meant to allow upgrades and third-party integration as aviation tech evolves. For a system that will sit at the centre of Singapore’s airspace picture for decades, that open/scalable design is as important as the AI headline.

Eyes in the sky: new radars

Beyond the software stack, Thales will field two next-generation air traffic control radars for round-the-clock detection, including in difficult weather. Those feeds plug into NexGen so controllers are working from a tighter, more reliable surveillance picture — radar and non-radar sources in one architecture.

For a tropical hub that deals with monsoon weather and high traffic density, weather-resilient surveillance is not optional kit. It is part of the safety case.

Air traffic management is civil on paper and strategic in practice — who builds it, who maintains it, and how cyber-hardened it is. Sequencer is decision support for controllers, not sci-fi autopilot. The interesting question stays the same: how much automation assists the human, and how the system fails safe when traffic spikes or sensors degrade.

Thales has been in Singapore since 1973, with over 2,000 staff across four locations spanning aeronautics, defence, public security, cybersecurity and digital identity. This contract reinforces that footprint — and Singapore’s habit of pairing local institutional capacity with deep-tech partners already inside its ecosystem.

“We are honoured to continue our long-standing partnership with CAAS on such an ambitious programme for Singapore. NexGen ATMS represents a new chapter in Singapore’s air traffic management. Thales’ strong installed base and our joint experience delivering transformative projects with CAAS, such as LORADS III, have enabled us to test, co-innovate, and develop future-ready solutions that will support the safe and efficient management of air traffic for years to come.”

— Pascale Sourisse, Senior Executive Vice-President, International Development, Thales

Singapore is upgrading the digital brain of its airspace: AI-assisted sequencing, hardened cybersecurity, new radars, and a TopSky – ATC One core meant to carry the system to one million movements a year by the 2030 horizon.

For Asia’s aviation hubs, the race is no longer just runways and terminals. It is who can safely compress more aircraft into the same sky — with systems that stay online under weather, congestion, and cyber pressure.

NexGen is Singapore’s answer to that race.