Category: Media center

A postage stamp on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of BULATSA was validated today by the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Rossen Jeliazkov, Deputy Minister Dimitar Genovski, BULATSA Director General Georgi Peev and the CEO of Bulgarian Posts Deyan Duneshki. They put a stamp on the issue, which represents a postage stamp in a block at value of 2 leva in a circulation of 7,000 pieces. The artist is Emilio Borata and the postage stamp can be found today at the post offices in the country.
“BULATSA will also service Istanbul airport, we are much ahead in the sector from leading European countries such as Germany and France,” said Minister Rossen Jeliazkov during the ceremony. “If we are to compare the minutes of delay, in our case they are close to zero. Imagine the largest airport in the world, like that in Istanbul, to be serviced by the Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority”, added the minister.
Director General Georgi Peev thanked all former and current employees of BULATSA and announced that the enterprise has taken medium-term and long-term measures to ensure the necessary capacity in the Bulgarian airspace. They are related to both the infrastructure and the necessary human resources – air traffic controllers and engineers.
The guests visited the operational room and the training simulator, where they were shown how in reality the Bulgaria’s traffic is being serviced.

The Director General of BULATSA, Georgi Peev, participated in the 66-th meeting of the European Committee of the CEOs of the Air Traffic Service Providers (ANSPs) members of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation – CANSO, which was held on 8 February 2019 at the EUROCONTROL Headquarters in Brussels.
The main focus of the discussions was the formation of the strategic vision for CANSO Europe by 2035. ANSPs agreed on key principles supporting the achievement of the set long-term goals, whereby the concrete steps include: protecting the end-user’s interest, optimizing the regulatory framework regarding Airspace Management (ASM), improving the planning of short-term and long-term capacity in the provision of Air Navigation Services (ANS) and enhanced introduction of technological solutions that allow centralized provision of specific ATM services. In addition, specificities were discussed regarding the role of ANSPs in the improvement of the capacity of European airspace, the intensively increasing use of drones for commercial and amateur purposes, the development of U-Space concept, as well as the aspects of cyber security and market services.
In conclusion, ANSPs exchanged up-to-date information on the on-going initiatives of the European Commission.

Sofia Airport dedicated the February edition of the initiative “Aviation School” to the 50th anniversary of the Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority. The event was opened by Asya Ivanova, Chairman of Sofia Airport Board of Directors, Vladimir Rapondjiev, Executive Director and Ivan Diaksov, BULATSA Deputy Director General.
From the head of BULATSA Training Center Dimitar Chunchukov, the children learned what the air traffic controllers were doing and examined one of the workplaces – the airport control tower from which are controlled the flights conducted at the metropolitan airport. They were told about the specificity of the work in winter conditions and why it is important to clean the runway and to mandatory spray the aircraft with special anti-icing liquid before take-off to ensure the safety of passengers.
The “School Day” concluded with award of diplomas to all participants.

Five Air Traffic Controllers from the Republic of Macedonia successfully completed the course for obtaining APS rating. The training was provided by Bulgarian instructors from BULATSA’s Training Center in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2015/340. The training contract with M-NAV was awarded to BULATSA within a tender procedure.

BULATSA is celebrating its 50th anniversary today. On 3 February 1969, with Ordinance No. 37 of the Council of Ministers, was established Directorate “Air Traffic Control” (ATC) as a separate, independent organizational structure within the State Economic Association “Bulgarian Civil Aviation”, with the main task of providing and servicing the air traffic in the airspace of the Republic of Bulgaria.

The main subject of activity of the enterprise is the safe air traffic management and for these 50 years it has become one of the leading air navigation services providers in our region.

In the last few years the traffic over Bulgaria has drastically increased and, in 2018 alone, BULATSA (Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority) serviced over 800 000 aircraft. Also increasing is the interest to the profession of air traffic controller and the recruitment campaign.

The program for modernization of the operational systems and technical equipment in BULATSA will continue in the following years in accordance with the approved “Strategy for Development of BULATSA Communication, Navigation and Surveillance, and Automated Air Traffic Management Aids and Systems for the Period 2017-2024”.

On the occasion of the jubilee will be validated a postage stamp and the emblematic BULATSA Control Tower at Sofia Airport is branded with a festive logo made especially for the anniversary.

The vision of BULATSA is to be among the leaders in the field of air navigation services in Europe and to successfully develop and meet the challenges posed by the new realities of the Single European Sky. The round anniversary will be celebrated throughout the year with various initiatives related to the profession of Air Traffic Controller and the aviation community, under the motto “50 Years Mapping Pathways in the Skies”.

The control tower of BULATSA at Sofia Airport is decorated from today to celebrate the 50-th anniversary of the company on 3 February 2019.
On this date in 1969, with Ordinance No. 37 of the Council of Ministers, was established Directorate “Air Traffic Control” (ATC) as a separate, independent organizational structure within the State Economic Association “Bulgarian Civil Aviation”, with the main task of providing and servicing the air traffic in the airspace of the Republic of Bulgaria.
The round anniversary of BULATSA (Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority) will be celebrated throughout the year with various initiatives related to the profession of Air Traffic Controller and the aviation community.
The Airport Control Tower in Sofia was opened on 05.12.2012 and is emblematic for the company. In its base is embedded a time capsule with a special message.
It was chosen as the building of the year in 2012, in the category “Special Purpose Buildings”.

Starting from 6th of December 2018 the Aircraft Operators are allowed to plan their flights freely across the airspace of 4 states – Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia – without the limitations given by the geographical borders. Since 00:01 a.m. local time Slovakia has opened the airspace for the Free route operations.
LPS SR, the Air Navigation Service Provider of Slovakia, has joined the SEEN FRA (South East Europe Night Free Route Airspace) initiative of 3 ANSPs, namely BULATSA, HUNGAROCONTROL and ROMATSA. SEEN FRA itself is a specific volume of the European airspace where the Aircraft Operators are allowed to file their flight plans without the obligation to follow prescribed ATS routes during the night times from the midnight until 0600 a.m. local time.
The new flight planning rules significantly optimize the flight trajectories not only for the sake of the usage of the shortest connections but also to allow the use of the most effective routings when the reaction to the impacts – like adverse weather avoidance – on the flights is inevitable.
According to the simulations the synergistic effect of all of the improvements has the potential to save daily average 3.200 NM of the total mileage which represents 15tons of fuel savings and at the end of the day 49 tons less of CO2 emissions.
The positive evolution of the changes in the Central and South-Eastern Europe airspace will continue during the next year. From April 2019 H24 FRA will be implemented within the Slovakian airspace and during summer 2019 the LPS SR will accordingly consider the extension of SEEN FRA availability for a longer part of the day. As of the 7th of November 2019, the 3 countries which started the SEEN FRA initiative (Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania) will extend the availability of cross-border FRA operations for the entire day by bringing into operation the SEE FRA project (South East Europe Free Route Airspace).
The activities related to SEEN FRA/SEE FRA and national FRA projects are in accordance with the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 716/2014 which directs the individual ANSPs to cooperate towards introducing the Free Route Airspace above FL300 (9.000m) throughout Europe by the end of 2021.
The main enabler and driver of the airspace changes at European level is EUROCONTROL, particularly the Network Manager. Thanks to the involvement and good will of all stakeholders, namely EUROCONTROL Member States and EUROCONTROL Agency, the Aircraft Operators will be able to fly on optimised profiles, using less fuel, hence reducing aviation´s environmental footprint.

At the invitation of State Enterprise for Air Traffic Organization in the Russian Federation a delegation, led by BULATSA Director General Georgi Peev, participated in a bilateral meeting on 5 December 2018 in Moscow.

During the visit were discussed operational and technical topics related to the safety in the provision of air navigation services. At the meeting were discussed the views of both organizations on the air traffic flows and the need to ensure capacity of the national and the delegated airspace over the Black Sea. The discussions were also held in the context of the increasing traffic from Russia to Varna and Burgas airports during the summer period, as well as the new airport in Istanbul, which is expected to start working effectively in 2019.