Traffic in Romania’s airspace is on the rise following Ukraine’s decision to close the Crimean Peninsula’s airspace, the development creating problems for Romanian air traffic controllers, Valentin Cimpuieru, Director of ROMATSA’s Technical and Development Department, stated on Tuesday.
Thus, while in 2013 there were 525,574 flights through Romanian airspace, the number grew to 594,264 in 2014 and 631,068 last year, which means a year-on-year growth of 13 percent in 2014 and 6 percent last year.
“The entire airspace in the Crimean region of the Black Sea has been closed starting in 2014, which created and is creating problems in Romania’s southern region. The traffic that used to cover the country’s northern region has shifted south, so that in some sectors air traffic controllers are overloaded, something that produces stress and fatigue,” Cimpuieru stated, being quoted by Agerpres.
However, he emphasised that air traffic controllers are very well trained and prepared to handle this type of situation. “Still, traffic is continuing to grow. In January-April this year we notice a 4.2 percent growth in air traffic compared to the same period last year,” he added.
