HungaroControl is at the crossroads between central and eastern Europe, what operational and technical challenges are you facing?

Although Hungary is a small country it has a strategically important location in many respects. As for the traffic, we really are in the crossroads of major North-South and East-West air routes which makes our work rather difficult due to the very high complexity of the air traffic. This complexity has been a serious challenge for us for decades, but recent months and years proved exceptionally difficult in this respect due mainly to the impacts of the war in Syria in the South as well as the Russian-Ukrainian crisis in the East.

Besides complexity HungaroControl faces the challenges of an unexpectedly rapid growth of traffic well above the European average: in July 2017 overflights over Hungary increased by 7.8%, arrivals and departures at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport increased by 9.9% compared to July 2016. Traffic in the Hungarian airspace has jumped by 20% following the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and the disaster of Malaysian Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine. Last but not least, since 2014 the Hungarian ANSP has been providing ATM services in the upper airspace over Kosovo with an air traffic increasing 48.8% in July compared to the same period of the previous year. 

In order to manage these challenges we invest a lot in improving our procedures and technology. We continuously develop our highly automated Thales ATC system and we were the first in Europe to implement totally unlimited free route upper airspace in 2015 which has recently been extended to the Romanian and Bulgarian airspace during the nights. HungaroControl was the first in the world to launch its Remote Tower system at a medium-capacity airport at Budapest International Airport in November this year. We are also very active in international R+D+I activities and do our best to be in the frontline of technological development.

As for other aspects, we see no real borderline between Western and Eastern Europe concerning technological development. We have seen good examples of Eastern European ANSPs with strong innovation and technology potential so innovation and technology seem to be independent from geographical location.

SESAR, FABs, Performance, how is HungaroControl addressing the changes introduced with the Single European Sky and what is the role of technology in this change?

Innovation and cooperation - I believe this is the way we can contribute to managing the challenges of the growth of air traffic and the Single European Sky.  As for innovation, HungaroControl has been dedicated to R+D+I activities for decades but it was not long ago we started to feel that we have the necessary potential to participate in EU research projects. This is why we joined SESAR 2020 and the SESAR Deployment Manager. As for cooperation, we have been very active in fostering relations and cooperation with our fellow ANSPs within FAB CE as well as beyond FAB borders both in and out of the frameworks of SESAR. We are open to cooperation both with ANSPs and other industry players. Cooperation of ANSPs with strong innovation potentials might prove highly successful  so we see good opportunities of launching joint projects with ENAV as well.

We fully support our common goal to make the performance of the European ATM industry more effective and to contribute to the reduction of passengers' costs.  We think the EU's Performance Regime is a good initiative in this respect although we are certain that there is still a long way to go before we find really adequate and fair solutions to the performance problems of the European ATM industry. Technology definitely plays a key role in improving capacity without increasing ATCO staff so it also contributes to the reduction of unit costs of ATM services. I think the world of drones will soon give some kind of a guidance in this respect to the ATM industry.

The role of ANSPs is changing, how can cooperation among ANSPs help in achieving your objectives?

I think the very final goal of the European Union is the consolidation of the European ATM industry, that is the reduction of the number of ANSPs by conjugating both countries and functions. From this perspective, I believe that ANSPs open to innovation and cooperation with other industry players have a lot bigger chance to survive in the long run. HungaroControl is open to such cooperation and fully aware that this is the only way to achieve its strategic goals. As I said earlier, we are open to working together with others both in and out of FAB CE frameworks, both with ANSPs as well as industry and manufacturing players such as our SESAR partner, Frequentis.

What are HungaroControl key priorities for the future, at national and international level?

I think I have actually answered this question in my earlier remarks. We work very hard to build a firm position which is able secure a long term presence for HungaroControl in an industry going through radical changes.