International organisation: Being in control at Eurocontrol

With 1.4 million flights a year Eurocontrol’s Upper Area Control Centre (UAC) at Maastricht Aachen Airport is the second busiest Air Traffic Control Centre in Europe, after London. Its 250 air traffic controllers supervise the sky of Belgium, north-west Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Day and night. A role model in Europe while new legislation for the “Single European Sky” is coming up.

A brief history
The year 1972 was a turning point in the history of Eurocontrol when the first truly international Air Traffic Control centre became operational. For the first time air traffic in one country was to be controlled from a centre located in another one.

A small but significant step towards the original ideal behind the creation of Eurocontrol in 1963: the complete integration of European air traffic services for a safe and effective use of the airspace.

Due to political reasons that goal has not yet been achieved in the whole of the European continent. But, by 2009 all European States will have to deliver a plan on how to contribute to the “Single European Sky” in Europe.

Australian colleagues
Maastricht UAC (MUAC) currently has a staff of 615 employees, including 250 air traffic controllers (ATCOs). “The explosive growth of air traffic in the 90’s called for increased numbers of air traffic controllers,” says communication officer Mireille Roman.

“We even had to hire ATCOs from Australia! In the meantime we are now gradually reaching the staffing levels required to cope with the formidable traffic increase of the past years. Recruitment will continue as predictions indicate that between now and 2020 air traffic is due to double. The air traffic controller training programme is quite difficult: on average only 4 out of 100 applicants will actually be allowed to start the training.”

Scanning the sky by radar
The main task of MUAC is to control air traffic in the upper airspace (i.e. above 7.5 km) of Benelux and north-west Germany. Every flight movement in that area is monitored in the control room.

Mireille: “The biggest misunderstanding about our business is that our controllers work from the air traffic control tower, but that is the working space of our colleagues who work at airports and where landing and departing air traffic at the airports are controlled on sight. Our ATCOs work with a radar. At MUAC the control room consists of some 40 radar screens, most of which are manned during peak hours. From the moment an airplane leaves an airport and climbs into the upper airspace and until it has started to descend, the safety of that airplane is our responsibility. In peak times, such as in the months of June and September when business travellers as well as tourists are on the move, we handle more than 4.500 flights a day. That means a lot of movement at the same time, in the same airspace, to monitor, regulate, guide, in short: to control.”

Can you cope with stress?
Azahar Baeriswyl, one of the 25 per cent of female controllers in Maastricht UAC, confirms the complexity of her work. When Azahar, a Swiss national, finished college at the age of 18, she did not feel like going to university. Her sister, a stewardess at the time, told her about the Swiss Air Traffic Control School (ATC School) with its attractive learning programme. “There was nothing to lose about that, so I decided to give it a try.”

Before Azahar was admitted into the school, she had to go through an intensive selection process: three inter-dependent full-day examinations over a period of several months, consisting of different tests dealing with stress-handling, psychological fitness and situational awareness. “During the first examination day I thought that I was never going to make it. We were two girls among more than 25 boys and I listened to them talking much about airplanes and aviation of which I knew nothing at all. By the end of the day, I felt that I had done well. Later, I saw none of these other candidates at the ATC-school…”

The essence of controlling: multitasking
After nine years at ATC (Air Traffic Control) in Geneva, Switzerland, Azahar applied for a controller job at the Maastricht UAC where she started training in 2001. After the busy city of Geneva, she felt quickly at home in “lovely Limburg” and the “cosy town of Maastricht”.

The young expat had to go through 1.5 years of training. ATCO’s at MUAC work a 4-2-roster: 4 days work, 2 days off. They work in shifts of different lengths to cover a day’s 24 hours. There is a requirement of 10 hours of rest between two shifts. During the day, a break is imposed after every 2.5 hours of work.

“You need it,” knows Azahar, “We are highly concentrated and do several things at the same time all the time. It is very tiring and stressful.”

Azahar explains the dazzling dots and lines on the radar screen, representing the many airborne civil and military planes and the countless routes, called airways. The airspace is divided into various geographical and vertical sectors. Many rules, called ‘procedures’, lay down exactly how to handle each and every flight.

Air Traffic Controllers work with headsets, microphones and telephones. Azahar explains: “We always work in a team of two in one sector. One talks to the pilots, the other one coordinates by phone with neighbouring sectors and Centres. We both constantly monitor the radar screen and do what is necessary to let the aircraft, all on many different routes and altitudes (”flight levels”), fly safely through the Maastricht Airspace. In short: our work is all about multitasking, the ability to do several things simultaneously.”

Feeling like a squeezed lemon
Does she ever make mistakes? “Of course. I always remember the words of one of my first instructors: ‘You are human, therefore you will make mistakes. The art is to detect and correct them immediately’. We must always be in control.”

What Azahar likes about her job is that she does not carry any work back home. “It’s an instant satisfaction job”, she says, “At the end of each shift, you know that ‘you did it again’. But you can imagine that after a busy day I sometimes feel like a squeezed lemon. What I do after work? I cannot answer in general but sports of yoga are definitely good to relieve stress. I also like to read and cook or drink a good espresso.”

A Swiss and a Dane in Maastricht
Last year she met her boyfriend, a Dane, who also works as an ATCO at MUAC. “It’s nice to live with someone who understands this job and knows about the effects of the very irregular working hours. I don’t know for how long I will be able to do this job, because in the long run it is physically demanding. The irregularity of a controller’s job is both its charm and its disadvantage.”

“It is more difficult to have a social life, but everyday life becomes nicely varied,” she adds. “I enjoy working in an international environment with colleagues from 28 different countries in total. So many cultures and mentalities; it’s a mind opener. Here I am, a Swiss girl living with a great Dane in Maastricht, from where I travel within 20 minutes to either Aachen and speak German, or Liège and speak French. I love this diversity. And as an expat I always feel as if on vacation, it’s great!”

By Rinnie Oey

Rinnie Oey is an editor at the Provincial Council of Limburg and also works as a freelance journalist for several clients such as the Open University of the Netherlands and Crossroads. She mainly covers human interest and science/education topics.