Delegation on air traffic network management in Europe got acquainted with Azerbaijani civil aviation’s achievements

A delegation of the Network Manager Operations Centre - NMOC, headed by Joe Sultana, Director of the Centre, paid a working visit to Baku today.

During  the visit, the guests got acquainted with Azerbaijani civil aviation facilities, including “Azeraeronavigation” Air Traffic Control Department and the new airport complex of the Heydar Aliyev International Airport (Terminal 1), which recently received a maximum rating of 5 Stars from Skytrax audit company. 

The new Airspace Supervision & Efficiency Center (ASEC), which is the key point in  air traffic flow managment  palanning aroused great interest of  NMOC managment. Thanks to this Center, Azerbaijan plays the role of strategic partner of Eurocontrol in planning of air traffic flows. 

On the same day, a meeting was held between President of Azerbaijan Airlines Jahangir Askerov and the Director of NMOC Joe Sultana. According to Jahangir Askerov, as a result of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev’s successful consistent policy, over the past decade Azerbaijan’s role as a transit state has significantly increased. This development is also observed in the overflights of aircraft through the airspace Azerbaijan.

At the meeting it was noted that today Azerbaijan’s civil aviation uses state of the art  technologies , including air navigation facilities. Annually over 90 thousand transit flights are carried out over the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

In turn, Joe Sultana highly assessed the achievements of Azerbaijan’s civil aviation. He noted that the strategic location and high level of air navigation provision makes Azerbaijan attractive for the European organization in filed of air traffic flow planning and it will increase the number of transit flights between Europe and Asia in the coming years. 

It should be noted that European Commission nominated NMOC (EUROCONTROL) as the Network Manager of Europe , the coordination of slots at European airports and the management of air traffic flows over the territory of 41 European countries – members of Eurocontrol, as well as Morocco and Azerbaijan. NMOC plans and controls over 27,000 flights every day and over 1 million flights per year.