New executive board elected 23rd January 2007
After a thrilling vote, the new CYATCA Executive Board was elected. Congratulations to Christos, Andreas, Yiannis, Polyvios and Ektoras !!
Controller team goes to Italy for factory acceptance 12 November 2005
A group of fellow colleagues will visit Alenia factory next week for factory acceptance of the ATC system for the new Nicosia ACC.
The 19th European Regional conference of IFATCA has ended 5 November 2002
The event which most participants described as "...one of the best, ever",
is now history. The 19th European Regional conference of IFATCA was held with
great success at Lemesos, Cyprus, between the 1st and the 3rd of November.
Delegates from more than 40 countries attended to discuss and deal with the
issues that are of interest to the Air Traffic Controllers in Europe today.
The hot topic this year was the Single European Sky initiative, or, in other
words, the trend towards the use of functional blocks of airspace
that are independent of national airspace frontiers. An example of this is
Eurocontrol's
CEATS
(Central European Air Traffic Services) project. The delegates expressed various concerns and
worries regarding the social implications of such initiatives (loss of work,
need to re-locate etc.). A policy recommendation was drafted and approved during
the meeting.
Another topic of great interest was the analysis of the mid-air collision of
July 1st over Lake Constance. The topic, (presented Mr.
Christoph Gilgen of the Swiss association),
gave an
insider's view of the contributing factors towards the accident. We were
all relieved to learn that the unfortunate colleague involved has received the
best possible counselling and support to deal with the incident and that he
still maintains his job, working as training instructor in Zurich.
On a lighter note now, the "after hours" activities offered many
entertaining moments to the participants. The highlight was without doubt Paris'
"revealing" dance during the traditional dinner at Platres !
All in all, everybody had great fun. At the beginning of the conference, delegates
knew each other merely as colleagues. At the end of the three days however, we
became all very good friends.
The organising committee was congratulated for its hard work and excellent
results and the best reward for them was the comments of appreciation by the
other delegates. Best wishes now to Portugal who will be hosting next year's
meeting. We hope that you will do even better!
CYATCA president is elected head of European branch of IFATCA 20 April 2002
During the recent IFATCA International Conference in Cancun, Mexico, CYATCA president Mr. Nicolas Lyrakides has been elected as new Executive Vice President (EVP) Europe (the official title for head of IFATCA European branch). It is a great honour for our association and a reward for Nicolas' committment to the proffession and IFATCA.
Nicolas
is 42 years old and was born in Nicosia, Cyprus. He is a controller for almost 16 years, currently working as an Area Radar
Controller in Nicosia ACC. He has two
beautiful children Stephanie (15) and Yiannis (10).
He has been attending IFATCA Int’l and Regional European conferences since 1989, missing only a few thereafter. Since 1998 he was an IFATCA Rep, representing the Federation in Air Traffic Flow meetings both at ICAO and EUROCONTROL. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering , M.Sc. in Air Transport Management and Airport Planning & Design and very recently he has completed an M.B.A degree in Public Sector Management .
RVSM is in operation ! 25 January 2002
For
those working in Nicosia ACC, on the 23rd of January
2001, the night shift was very different from the usual. A few minutes before
midnight, a general broadcast by the duty ATCO notified all aircraft that RVSM
operations would commence at time 0001 UTC. Sure enough, at that time, the first
aircraft flying in the European RVSM transition airspace of Cyprus, a Saudia
Airbus 300, was instructed to leave FL310 and climb to FL320.
The
transition was witnessed by senior officials of the Cyprus Civil Aviation authority
and Eurocontrol RVSM Project team.
As
it is well known, with the implementation of RVSM, six additional flight levels
between FL290 and FL410 are available for aircraft to fly, this being the direct
result of reducing the vertical separation between aircraft from 2000 ft to 1000
ft. The extra flight levels mean savings of millions of Euros for aircraft
operators flying over Europe.
Cyprus
has been designated as transition airspace and Cyprus controllers have the
responsibility to adapt to the new method of working. This not only involves
the usage of the new levels, but also the extra burden of changing the aircraft
flight levels coming from or going to the neighbouring FIRs, most of which
continue working with the old conventional way. For this reason, Cyprus ATCOs
and support stuff have been training for months now, attending seminars and
trying numerous exercises on the RADAR simulator.
Check
out the RVSM gallery for pictures from the night of the changeover.
First batch of controllers return from RVSM training
15 October 2000
The first batch of eight senior RADAR controllers have returned from the EUROCONTROL
headquarters in Luxemberg, where they attented a two week course on RVSM
(reduced Vertical Separation Minima) and its implementation in Cyprus.
RVSM is expected to go live in Europe in the beginning of 2002.
The course included an extended simulation of applying RVSM to air traffic flying within the Cyprus FIR.
It has not yet been decided if and when more controllers will attend the same course
in Luxemberg or whether the controllers who have already been there will
train the rest of the staff. It worth pointing out that all the colleagues
who have been to Luxemberg stressed the usefulness of visiting EUROCONTROL,
not just for the RVSM course, but also for the unique experience of working, even briefly,
at such an advanced ATC center.
Latest CYATCA annual meeting
25 January 2000
The regular CYATCA annual meeting was held on the 25th of January at the
Association's premises at Nicosia. The most significant decision was
to abandon the premises that housed the Association for so many years
due to the high running and maintenance costs.
In the future, the Association's activities will be held in places that will be temporarily leased.
Also at the meeting there was a very useful briefing by union representatives as to the union's actions
regarding the recent management proposal for restructuring salary scales
of Air Traffic Controllers.
Controllers re-instated to work
11 July 1999
The unhappy ordeal of eleven of our colleages ended yesterday
at the House of Parliament in Nicosia, with the
with the voting of the law reinstating them to work.
These controllers are working under contract, pending their
official appointment as civil servants.
The continuation of their employment was under the discretion
of the parliament, which basically wants to control who and
why works under contract in the public sector.
Following days of intensive campaigning the representatives
were pesuaded that the case of the controllers is a special
one and that they are essential for the smooth running of the day to day business.
So the law was passed and the story had a happy ending.
Installation of Approach Radar at Larnaca has began
18 June 1999
The installation of the new Approach radar at Larnaca airport has entered a new phase
with the arrival and installation of the antennas and data processing hardware. The installation is being
supervised by two Thompson engineers and is closely monitored by Civil Aviation personnel. Commissioning of
the system will commence shortly and the system is expected to be operational before the end of the summer.
Eurocontrol Y2K Committee Conference - Brussels
14 June 1999
Two of our members have just returned from Brussels, where they took part in
in the Y2K Conference, held at Eurocontrol Headquarters between 1st and 3rd of June.
The purpose of the conference was for each participant to present
a contigency plan to be implemented in the event an Air Traffic Control
system fails as a result of the much talked about Y2K problem, i.e. the computer
bug that may affect the operation of ATC systems worldwide on the turn of the century.
The conference had 37 participants (from all ECAC states) plus representatives of IATA, FAA and ICAO. The Cyprus delegation was made up of Mr. Savvas Theofanous (SATCO) and Mr. Antonis Maltezos (ATCO). Our presentation was very successful, as our plan received the committee commendation for the most advanced Operational Contigency Plan. The plan will be implemented by Nicosia ACC three hours before the end of 1999 and it basically involves the allocation of flight levels to aircraft transiting Nicosia FIR, so that they can continue their flight safely, even if all systems fail during the transition to the next millenium.
During their visit, they have been given a thorough description by Greek controllers, of the new systems in radar control, data processing, flight planning, CFMU, FMP etc. and briefed on the various problems present during the transitional stage towards the new ATC environment.
Documentation about the new ATC system in Athens, has now been passed in all our ATC units, while a relevant video tape can be viewed at Nicosia ACC.
CYATCA wishes to express sincere thanks to both members for their time spent for this purpose.
Contact us via email 
at
cyatca@freemail.gr
