AIR TRAFFIC SERVICES
Area control services
The Area Control Centre has been established on the 8 November 1996. It is situated at the Skopje International airport. At that time it has been working in the old TMA OPS room and using rather old equipment. In January 2002 Skopje ACC was transferred in a new OPS room equipped with at the time state of the art system. Now Skopje ACC is handling approximately 150000 flights a year, and more than 600 flights during the peak summer day.
The services are provided by up to 4 ACC sectors, with capacity up to 30 aircraft per sector. Each sector consists of two identical working positions, of which one is assigned to the planning and one to the executive controller.
Terminal services
TMA Skopje is situated at Skopje International airport. Besides handling approximately 12000 IFR flights a year, TMA Skopje also handles most of the military traffic in R. Macedonia as well as most of the General Aviation Traffic (GAT). Apart from the Skopje International airport, under its jurisdiction are several smaller airfields used by the GAT and aircraft specialized for farm dusting.
TMA Skopje uses the same modern multi-radar system as Skopje ACC. It consists of one executive position and one assistant position.
Established LoA between Skopje ACC and neighboring ACC have proven successful coordination and cooperation between units; ATCOs are familiar with the neighboring Airspace and procedures in use.
The facility of Air Traffic Control unit – ATC Ohrid is located at International Airport “St. Paul the Apostle” in Ohrid. ATC Ohrid unit bears responsibility for ensuring safe, orderly and expeditious air traffic flow in the Airspace under its jurisdiction.
ATC Ohrid provides the following air navigation services:
• Air Traffic Control (ATC)
• Flight Information Services (FIS)
• Alerting Services (ALRS).
ATC Ohrid provides air traffic control operations for tower air traffic control (TWR) and approach air traffic control (APP), as regulated by prescribed regulations, rules and standards related to procedural/non-radar separation.
The TWR/APP sector is handled by one Air Traffic Controller, while in specific prescribed circumstances, the said sector may be handled by two ATCOs.
ATCO & FDO training
The ATCO and FDO training department was established in 2009 with the creation of M-NAV. It is vital for producing and maintaining the high level qualifications of the ATCO’s and FD’s required for the safe conduct of the air traffic in Republic of Macedonia. The training department has a Head of the training department, 4 instructors (3 ATC Instructors and 1 Aviation English Instructor) and 2 administrative support staff. When necessary, 7 OJTIs from Skopje ACC, 5 OJTIs from Skopje TMA and 2 OJTIs from Ohrid aerodrome control help in conducting the theoretical, simulator and On the Job Training.
Besides the ATCO’s training (transitional, pre-OJT and OJT) and FD’s training, the training department is also responsible for creation and revision of the relevant documents, such as Unit Training Plan, Unit Competency Scheme etc. The Aviation English Instructor is conducting aviation English continuation training on a yearly basis for all the ATCOs and FDOs in M-NAV. M-NAV has signed License Agreements with EUROCONTROL for the use of ELPAC and FEAST, and this is also under the responsibility of this training department.
M-NAV is using advanced equipment and technology in order to perform the assignments assigned by the State. The equipment and the environment require a lot of specialized training, which is provided by the training department. All the training has been developed in compliance with EUROCONTROL’s standards and recommendations. The training department has modern facilities at its disposal. The Pre-OJT training of Skopje ACC and Skopje TMA ATCO’s is conducted on site-specific simulator, identical to the system used in the OPS room.