There are not many Companies that have a name, which concisely describes their main activity.

Everybody who has ever flown in an aircraft above the territory of the Czech Republic has encountered the work of ANS CR employees, however, not everyone has realised this fact. Comfortably seated in the seat of the passenger aircraft, most passengers spend their time thinking about the destination of their journey, wondering whether they have not left anything important behind back at home, or what kind of a meal will the airline Company be serving. The pilots in the cockpit of a passenger aircraft are in fact in constant contact with our Company.

As far as pilots are concerned, the activity of several hundred ANS CR employees cumulates into the voice of the radar air traffic controller. Throughout its duration, he helps the pilots in performing the flight in such a manner that, for the passengers, it becomes a pleasant memory of peaceful, fast and comfortable travelling. Awareness of the fact, that the track of the aircraft is being constantly followed on a radar screen by the watchful eyes of a controller, is something that, to a great extent, contributes to the peace of mind of every pilot even in the age of automated systems and data transfer between ground and air. An air traffic controller thus finds himself on the top of the imaginary pyramid of activities performed by ANS CR employees. Every building block of this pyramid is important, for each has its fixed place within the system of air navigation services.

Air traffic control is the final product. It may sound exaggerated, but even the best radar controller will find himself helpless at the moment, when he does not hear the voice of the pilot of the aircraft in his headphones. The fact, that such a situation does not occur, is a result of the good work of a whole group of experts from the ANS aeronautical telecomunications services. Coping with a situation, when the radar screen goes blank under full operations in overcrowded airspace, is something that every controller must regularly practice on a simulator. The first-rate radar experts, technicians and computer specialists, employed by our Company, safeguard against such a situation occurring during actual operatons.

Employees of Air Navigation Services escort most flights, figuratively speaking, from their very beginning. Planning, communication and co-ordination with the supranational centre for European airspace in Brussels is a ritual which is conditional for every flight. Among the activities, which are a part of this ritual, is also the preparation of pre-flight bulletins for flight crews, mostly departing from the Prague airport. Hundreds of pieces of up-to-date data and operational information, arranged according to a pre-set key, guide pilots from the point of take-off right up to the to the destination airport. The voice of an air traffic controller is always the first tangible contact a pilot has with our Company. Upon entering the airspace of the CR, it is the voice of a controller from the Area Control Centre Prague (ACC Prague), when departing from Prague or one of the Karlovy Vary, Ostrava or Brno aerodromes, it is the voice of a controller on the aerodrome control tower.

The tinted windows of the aerodrome control tower (TWR), which is usually the highest building on the aerodrome, hide the air traffic control unit, which is responsible for traffic on the manoeuvring area of the aerodrome and in the airspace of its vicinity. Clearance to land is followed by take-off clearance, taxiing instructions are the impulse for the pilot to increase motor revolutions and begin the first movement of the aircraft on the way towards its given destination. When taxiing on the manoeuvring area of the Prague-Ruzyně airport, every movement of the aircraft is being closely monitored by surface movement radar. Take-off clearance has been granted, the aircraft is picking up speed, its motors driving the metal colossus along the concrete runway. A gentle swing and the aircraft is climbing upwards into the sky.

Digits, indicating the altitude of the aircraft, start changing rapidly on the radar screen of the controller in the departure sector of the Approach Control Centre (APP Prague). Apart from these data, the radar controller also sees the identification and speed of the flight. The whole team of air traffic controllers at the approach control unit is divided into individual control working stations according to the tasks being performed there. The sector for arriving aircraft places aircraft, which enter its airspace from various directions, into approach sequence. A different control working station guides the aircraft, with the help of radar, onto the extended centre line of the runway assigned for the landing of the aircraft.

The radar unit, which has the largest number of working stations – sectors, is the Area Control Centre Prague. Six sectors, which are flexibly activated in accordance with the density of air traffic in the airspace of the CR, are supplemented by two additional back-up sectors, designated for providing air traffic services in case of a further increase in the volume of air traffic. The strategic location of the Czech Republic in the heart of Europe, and the increased demand for services in this part of airspace, indicate that their time is soon to come. The area control centre, in comparison with an approach control centre, also provides services to flight, which are only transiting the airspace of the CR.

Operating working stations are run by highly qualified personnel and equipped with technology that corresponds to the demands placed on air traffic services. The age of screwdrivers and vacuum tubes has been replaced by an age of automated security systems, data networks, and data transfer between ground units and the board of an aircraft. Flight co-ordination by telephone has been replaced by automated data exchange, and making decisions by the controller has been simplified by a whole scale of useful functions of the main radar system.

On the one hand, modern radar systems provide controllers with the comfort of a range of exact operating information on the other hand this comfort has to be offset by providing these systems with perfect technical maintenance, and by a high level of expertise of those looking after them.

The high demands placed on the expertise of operating and technical personnel are backed up by an elaborate system of education, professional schooling and practical training. Regular refresher and advanced training courses on a high-quality radar simulator make it possible to not only maintain a high level of professionalism of personnel, but it also makes it possible to practice new HMI functions and new operating procedures.

The methodology of providing air traffic services is a subject, which is dealt with by a number of international rules and recommendations. Experts from ANS CR are represented in many task groups in 

ICAO and EUROCONTROL. A high quality systematic expert work thus produces the basic requirement for success in air traffic services as a whole.

Air traffic control is a basic presumption for the existence or air transport. At the same time, it is a phenomenon, which greatly influences the safety and efficiency of air transport. The everlasting endeavour at minimising flight delays in their own airspace, while attaining a high level of safety and reliability of the offered services, is the moving spirit of all employees of the Company.

The quality of the rendered air traffic services is a mirror reflection of the Company, which has its mission already written in its name.

top of page