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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.