Student Air Traffic Controllers - EUROCONTROL

As an air traffic controller, your job will be to ensure that aircraft fly safely apart from each other. To achieve this, a minimum of 1,000 ft (304.8 m) vertically or 5 nautical miles (9.26 km) laterally is maintained between aircraft. Although safety is the top priority of air traffic controllers, the job does not stop there.

With air traffic growing every year, it is crucial that aircraft fly as smoothly as possible, with maximum punctuality. This is also ensured by air traffic controllers.

Controllers at Maastricht work in a control room, on what are known as “sectors”. These sectors are divided intro smaller portions and each portion is under the responsibility of a team or two, sometimes three, controllers.

Their tools are radar screens (displaying radar and flight data information), a radiotelephony system, telephones and computers.

Our ATCO training course lasts about two and a half years. Training is done at an aviation university in Toulouse and at our Maastricht centre. The training courses start in March and October each year; they include in-depth theoretical classes, training on simulators as well as intensive on-the-job training at the centre. 

Training

1. Student controllers are trained at ENAC in Toulouse for the initial part of the training. The unit training will take place at the Upper Area Control Centre at Maastricht.
2. This training will include the following matters: air traffic services, navigation, meteorology, telecommunications, aerodynamics, etc., and theoretical and practical training in area control. In addition, courses in automatic data processing will be provided at appropriate stages.
3. The phasing and duration of the separate parts of the training will depend on many factors, e.g. the student's rate of progress, availability of training positions, etc. As a general rule, however, a minimum period of 2 years and 9 months is required to complete training and to obtain controller qualifications. A student whose results are unsatisfactory may be dismissed at any stage of the training.

Service career

Students who obtain the necessary qualifications at the end of the training period will be appointed to controller posts under the "General Conditions of Employment" and will subsequently be established. Both students and established servants are governed by the terms of the "General Conditions of Employment" and the supplementary provisions, including any subsequent amendments thereto. In particular, any provisions referring to an early retirement scheme according to which an established controller will cease active service at the age of 55. He/she will receive a retirement pension calculated according to the pension rights acquired at that date, each year of service giving entitlement to 1.9% of pension rights.