Air traffic services within the Ercan Advisory Airspace has been safely run by the Ercan Air Traffic Management Center since 21 March 1977. Since 3 February 1975, Ercan Airport’s Air Traffic Control Tower has been actively used by professional staff who provide top quality service to inbound, outbound and transit aircrafts. Ercan acts as a bridge between the west and the Middle East and keeps growing strongly as its place in the sector continues to strengthen. Ercan Advisory Airspace covers an area of 55,000 km2 and service is given by air traffic controllers under International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) safety rules. Our trained air traffic controllers run and manage the advanced air traffic systems at Ercan Airport Traffic Control Tower.
In 1992, after the setup of the first radar at Ercan Airport, the scope of service provided extended to a much larger area and enabled global integration with the aviation industry. Despite the presence of the unjust isolation of the TRNC, safe management of air traffic by the traffic control tower at Ercan Airport continues to grow. The tower manages a daily traffic between 70 to 100 aircrafts. In Ercan Advisory Airspace, the daily traffic is between 650-800 planes. Transit air traffic over Ercan Airspace in January and February 2018 was 32,325. The figure increased to 36,094 for the first two months of 2019, an 11 per cent growth. The accusations that Ercan Advisory Airspace is a threat to safety in aviation is completely false. In the contrary, air traffic controllers at the Ercan Airport traffic control tower sometimes spots mistakes made by the Nicosia Control and sends warnings to ensure safe passage of traffic, thus acting as an insurance.
The air traffic controllers continue to develop their careers through on the job training, which include workshops and simulation practices, sometimes taking place in Turkey’s busiest airports which is a part of a larger cooperation between the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation Civil Aviation Department and Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastucture General Directorate of State Airports Authority. With state of the art equipment and hardware, the main objective is to provide international aviation safety rules within the Ercan Advisory Airspace for safe, rapid and orderly flow of air traffic. With trained personnel, Ercan Air Traffic Management Center, will surely continue to provide service and grow in the aviation sector.