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During the World ATM Congress in Madrid air traffic controllers from BULATSA and engineers from AIRBUS Aircraft and AIRBUS Defence and Space participated in a three-day joint demonstration of the expanded and tested so far functionalities of the TESLA prototype for phase V2 (Feasibility) – part of SESAR 2020 Programme.
The prototype has been developed by BULATSA and AIRBUS Defence and Space under SESAR Solution PJ.10-02a – Tactical Encounter Solver Assistant (TESLA).
The TESLA prototype aims at assisting ATCOs in resolving potential conflicts in terminal areas with medium and high traffic density with the purpose of tactical separation control. The prototype shall assess the ATCO’s work and present different options for conflict prevention by analyzing aircraft trajectories and suggesting actions for resolution of each specific situation.
The teams carry out preparatory activities for validation of Phase V3 (pre-industrialization), which include conducting a real-time simulation using the prototype developed. The exercise is planned to be conducted in the end of March 2019 in BULATSA, Sofia.

The Director General of BULATSA Mr. Georgi Peev participated in CANSO CEO Strategy Summit which took place on 11 March 2019, prior to the opening of the World ATM Congress (WATMC). The biggest international event for air traffic management, organized by CANSO in partnership with the Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA), was opened yesterday in Madrid and will continue until 14 March.
The Summit started the activities related to WATMC and is an event with the participation of high-level professionals which brings together CANSO Member CEOs to discuss the current development of the ATM industry and the CANSO strategy. This year a main topic of the discussions is “Cybersecurity in ATM”.
As part of WATMC 2019 Georgi Peev also participated in the CANSO Conference “Tackling the Big Issues in ATM – Capacity, UTM Integration, People”. At the forum were discussed the integration and management of drones, attracting and keeping the next generation of ATM professionals and exploring the best ways to provide the necessary growth in ATM capacity. Keynote speakers at the Conference were Mr. Henrik Hololei, Director-General for Mobility and Transport, the European Commission, and Mr. Daniel Elwell, Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the USA.
The international partners of the aviation community marked also the 50th anniversary of the establishment of BULATSA.

The ski team of BULATSA ranked 10th in the 44th International Winter-Championship of Air Traffic Controllers, which was held in Sochi. More than 700 skiers from 49 teams from all over Europe, USA, Australia and Russia competed in the disciplines cross-country skiing, snowboarding and giant slalom skiing in Rosa Khutor resort.
25 Bulgarian air traffic controllers from BULATSA took part in all disciplines. Very good results were achieved by Svetlin Tzvetanov, who ranked 6th in his age group in the giant slalom, and Georgi Doganov – 10th in the ski running. The team also won the “Best Design T-shirt” cup, dedicated to Sanya Borzak (a Russian colleague who has passed away a few months ago).

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.