Historic Night: BiH Takes Control of the Skies

Tonight at one o'clock local time, on the night of November 12-13, 2014, the Air Navigation Services Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina – BHANSA begins providing air traffic control services in the lower airspace of Bosnia and Herzegovina. With this act, new pages of civil aviation in Bosnia and Herzegovina begin to be written, writes kontrolaletenja.net, reported by the BH news agency Patria.

- BiH has never had control over its airspace before. The exception was the airspace in the immediate vicinity of our international airports, i.e., near the airports in Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Mostar, and Tuzla. Before the war, the airspace above Bosnia and Herzegovina was controlled by centers in Zagreb and Belgrade. During the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina was a "no-fly zone", i.e., a zone forbidden for all aircraft except those belonging to NATO. After the end of the war and the establishment of peace, civil traffic continues to operate normally over the territory of our country. Zagreb and Belgrade again take control of the airspace of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

With the launch of the BHATM project, i.e., the air traffic management project in BiH, a long journey began to establish sovereignty over the airspace above the Bosnian-Herzegovinian state territory. Collaborators on this project were the SMATSA agency (Air Traffic Control of Serbia and Montenegro) and the private company Filedata d.o.o. from Zagreb. In addition to the aforementioned, the Spanish company Indra Sistemas, S.A. was selected for the procurement and installation of radars on Jahorina, data processing systems, communication devices, simulators, etc. For the realization of the Air Traffic Management Project in BiH, according to some information, approximately 52.8 million KM has been secured.

Currently, the BH ATM project is in its final phase: tonight, our air traffic controllers from Mostar, Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Tuzla, and other Bosnian-Herzegovinian cities will take over control of the lower airspace over Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is, they will control aircraft flying up to an altitude of approximately ten kilometers (32,500 feet). The next step is planned for November 2015, when our controllers will finally take over control of the upper airspace, thus concluding this long-term project.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend sincere congratulations to the air traffic controllers, technical staff, meteorologists, aviation publications service, aviation information service, search and rescue center, flight information center, administrative staff, and finally the management for the effort and selfless dedication they have shown throughout all these years.