Air traffic control centre opens

New headquarters for Serbian air traffic control

The multi million Euro state of the art air control centre in Belgrade has been completed. Its opening this evening will mark a landmark change in air traffic control in the region. The new building, located next to Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, has 9.500 square metres and construction on the building began in March 2009. The building has been completed six months ahead of schedule. A total of 500 controllers will be able to work at the same time inside the building and 4.000 aircraft will be handled per day. Belgrade control takes care of Serbia’s and Montenegro’s airspace, as well as 55% of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s airspace and the airspace above international waters of the Adriatic Sea.

The new building will be opened today at 18.00 CET by the Serbian Prime Minister, Mirko Cvetković. Also attending the grand opening are Serbian President, Boris Tadić, 20 directors from various European air control centres and high ranking officials from the Montenegrin Government.

The construction cost of the new air traffic control centre in Belgrade amounts to 19 million Euros while, together with the new equipment, the entire project tops 90 million Euros. According to the project manager, Belgrade now has the most up to date air control centre in the world and the largest control centre in the Balkans.

Meanwhile, in another show of keeping up with the times Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport will, from January 1, 2011, begin using an ePassport gate. The gate will allow Serbian passport holders to scan their passports and leave their fingerprint. If the fingerprint sample matches the one in their passport, passengers can proceed without any further passport control checks. Citizens from other countries that are holders of a biometric passport will also be able to use the gate instead of proceeding to passport control.