It has been a busy few weeks for air traffic control as hundreds of military aircraft streak across the skies on their way to Libya.
While civil aviation traffic has gone down slightly, military traffic in the flight information region handled by Malta Aviation Traffic Services (MATS) has gone up “exponentially”, according to chief operations officer Robert Sant.
Between 100 and 200 missions daily are being flown by the alliance of nations seeking to quell the threat of force against Libyan citizens opposing the Gaddafi regime. And each mission includes more than one aircraft.
“The numbers are there, there are many more than there would usually be, but it’s not so much the numbers which are problematic, it’s the complexity of military requirements... So we have to coordinate with Nato on how we’re going to section the airspace, but ultimately we have to make sure everyone is safe,” Mr Sant said.
In all cases, air traffic control has to accommodate everyone as best it can, as both civilian and military planes have their needs. Lengthening the course for a fuel-guzzling fighter jet might mean it will run out of fuel before arriving at its destination, for instance.
Mr Sant said there was full cooperation between military authorities and the air traffic services, building on a rapport which has been established for years. Military planes, after all, are a common occurrence in the sky around Malta.
“We deal with military planes on a day-to-day basis. We’re in a transit area even for Iraq and Afghanistan. We’re in the middle of the Mediterranean, so at some point some routes will hit us, but obviously right now there is an exponential increase in military operations.”
If the Libyan situation stays the same, the summer months will be a challenge as civil aviation traffic increases over the Mediterranean will be a challenge. MATS is already planning for circumstances in which the military flights would have to share the airspace with more civilian aircraft.
The profile of the service was raised in the past month as it handled the situation efficiently. Yesterday, Joe Sultana, a chief operating officer at Eurocontrol, the European organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, conveyed Europe’s appreciation and respect for the work carried out in Malta.
President George Abela and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech visited the MATS offices at the Airport, where they were shown around and given a presentation on the operations.