Category: Media center

BULATSA presented its modern infrastructure for air navigation services to the participants in the AUSTRIA SHOWCASE – TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE forum. Mr. Veselin Stoyanov, Director of European Programmes, Projects and Strategies, emphasized the great importance of BULATSA’s modern tools for the quality servicing of airplanes in the Bulgarian airspace. Among them are the modern automated air traffic services system, the new Mode S radars for servicing the overflying traffic and Sofia airport area, communication and navigation systems and devices, the new air-ground DATALINK, 3D simulator for airport towers training, etc.
By 2020, BULATSA plans to introduce a new aeronautical information system, expansion of the aircraft monitoring system, information security operational center, and more. Leading role in the development of aeronautical infrastructure of BULATSA has the European Air Traffic Management Research Program – SESAR, in which BULATSA actively participates.
The Forum AUSTRIA SHOWCASE – TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE has been organized under the auspices of the Federal President of the Republic of Austria, Mr. Alexander van der Bellen. In the Forum participate leading Bulgarian and Austrian companies in the field of transport infrastructure.

Regarding the increasing air traffic at Sofia Airport, BULATSA, DG Civil Aviation Administration and Sofia Airport undertook additional measures to limit the airplane noise at Sofia Airport, which came into effect on 26 April.
The measures are result of the purposeful policy of the three institutions to reduce the impact of aviation on the environment in the conditions of increasing traffic. The main priority is the safe conduction of flights in the interest of both the passengers and the residents of Sofia and the surrounding villages.
A procedure is being introduced to reduce the aviation noise for departures in the east direction, which provides for taking-off airplanes heading to West European airports to climb up to the absolute altitude of 4500 feet / 1370 meters and then make a left turn. The measure will allow aircraft to not fly over Dolni Bogrov village, and if some of them still do fly over, they will be at the altitude of 1000 meters above the buildings, instead of 400 meters as it has been so far.
The aviation noise upon stopping of the aircraft, after landing at Sofia Airport runway, will also be reduced. The procedure takes into account the increased runway length and provides for the aircraft to not stop after landing using the maximum reverse engine power. This will allow noise reduction over the neighborhoods closest to the airport (Hristo Botev, Suhata Reka, V. Levski).
In the cases of mandatory take-off in the direction to Sofia city, during the time interval 23.00 – 06.00 o’clock, they will be performed from the beginning of the runway. It is envisaged the whole increased length of Sofia Airport runway to be used, which will allow the flying over the city to be conducted at a higher altitude.
A procedure to prohibit deviations from the established flight routes with the purpose of reducing the route length, at an absolute altitude lesser than 5000 feet/1500 meters, will restrict the practice immediately after take-off airplanes to take the shortest route towards the destination airport. The measure will reduce aircraft noise over Sofia city and Dolni Bogrov village.

At the invitation of the Director General Georgi Peev, BULATSA welcomed a delegation of the air navigation services provider of Turkey – DHMI. Experts from both sides participated in working sessions to clarify current issues, the expected significant increase of air traffic in the summer season and the upcoming opening of the new Istanbul airport.
Bulgarian air traffic controllers are already preparing for the new challenge and for that purpose were conducted training real time simulations at the BULATSA Training Centre simulator for the introduction of Arrival Manager (AMAN) system for managing the arriving airplanes to the new airport.
At the meeting it was also discussed the signing of a contract between BULATSA and DHMI for installation in the two operating rooms of AMAN system for managing the arriving airplanes.

BULATSA provided additional air traffic controllers to control the air traffic after the failure of the central server of EUROCONTROL flight data processing system on 3 April. This failure required the introduction of the Contingency plan for servicing the take-off, landing and overflying air traffic over Europe. The backup data processing system for flights in the European airspace fills up with data again but is not currently in use.
It is expected that after midnight the system will begin to exchange data with the other systems in Europe providing information about the flights of the aircraft. Possible delays of the traffic could be generated as a consequence of delayed departures from the busy airports in Europe to the international airports in Bulgaria. There may be delays of the take-off and landing planes in Sofia, Varna and Burgas as a consequence of the restrictions imposed by EUROCONTROL.
All systems in BULATSA operate and the situation is normal.
Photo: Veronique Paul, independent.co.uk

35 Macedonian ATCOs from Skopije and Ohrid (with qualification Tower) started a refresher training at BULATSA simulator for operations in special and emergency situations during flights and will stay in Bulgaria until the end of June.
Experts from BULATSA Simulation Complex and their colleagues from M-NAV created playing exercises and scenarios for 3D models of Skopije and Ohrid airports for the purposes of the training. The models are as close as possible to reality and provide and excellent opportunity to increase the competence of the trainees.
BULATSA won a tender for this training as a part of its market search policy in the field of training and for providing its simulator as one of the most modern and high-tech in this sphere.

Bulgarian air traffic controllers provided services in our airspace to one of the longest flights in the world. The flight of Qantas airline between Perth, Australia and London lasted more than 17 hours, travelling over 14 000 kilometers without a stopover.
The flight plan included the airspace of Sofia flight information region. The airline’s choice of our country to be part of the optimal trajectory is not accidental due to the introduced free route airspace between Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. It provides maximum possibilities for optimization of the flight trajectories and effective utilization of the high-altitude wind.
This flight demonstrated once again that the enhanced capabilities of modern passenger airplanes are excellently supplemented by the timely measures for development of airspace design, thus improving the possibilities for conduction of flights to the benefit of passengers. The Bulgarian contribution to this flight confirms the fact that BULATSA is a reliable and correct partner to all users of its services.

BULATSA has a representative for Bulgaria in the European Aviation Crisis Coordination Cell (EACCC) who will be responsible for the coordination with EACCC of the activities in the event of aviation crisis and for the communication with the other stakeholders.
Bulgaria is with a status of a permanent participant in EACCC during the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of Europe.
ЕАССС organizes annual exercises to simulate crises in aviation with participation of Member States of EUROCONTROL, in which Bulgaria has not participated so far.
Last year BULATSA declared its participation together with CAA in the planned for 13-14 March 2018 exercise CYBER 2018. Bulgaria was involved as a state directly affected by cyber-attack against the radar information processing systems.
The exercise was focused on the coordination and communication in the event of such a cyber-attack. During the exercise an operational information was exchanged with the aim to reduce the uncertainty for the aviation in general and for ATM in particular. The main objective of EACCC is to increase the readiness for reaction in the events of cyber-attacks against the centers and the ATM network through coordination and harmonized approach for reaction.
In order to prepare its participation in the exercise BULATSA held discussions with experts from CAA, Ministry of Defense, SANS and the CERT-BG on the basis of which it sent proposals regarding simulation situations at national level, the actions of the competent national authorities and the appointed contact persons.
ЕАССС summarized the materials sent by the participating states and prepared on their basis guiding documents (directives), describing the goals, the tasks, the operational situation, the impact, the progress of the exercise and the planned discussions on the results.
The exercise was performed by means of a specialised software with access through web-interface where the participants followed step by step the events from the pre-planned scenario. The actions of the states on the pre-entered information were discussed and the participants had the opportunity to ask questions and to provide additional information about the decisions taken.

The strong winds led to problems for aviation on 17 and 18 March, because of the high speed, gusts and lateral direction to the runway of Sofia Airport. The maximum wind speed reached 22 m/s or 80 km/h. The crews reported wind shear throughout the night while BULATSA’s air traffic controllers proved exceptional professionalism in servicing the airspace.
The phenomenon is called foehn and occurs in the cold half of the year. A cyclone influenced the weather as warm air from the Mediterranean flew at high velocity over the ground, streaming above the Mountain of Vitosha and accelerated during its descend over the valley of Sofia. This raised the temperatures above the normal for the season.
The turbulence and wind shear (change of wind speed and/or direction from one point in space to another) caused discomfort for passengers and increased the workload of air crews and air traffic controllers.
The workload of BULATSA’s meteorologists was also increased as they were required to provide the most accurate forecast for the wind speed, direction and the duration of the phenomenon. These issues reflect on both the professionals and the flying public, so the information needs to be provided in a timely manner. A good coordination was in place and no incidents occurred in these critical periods.
A standard procedure for the aircraft to ‘Go Around’ is in place for such situations where the safe landing is a paramount.
The chart below shows the average speed (blue) and the wind gusts (red). Data source: Aerodrome Weather Observation System.