Nicosia: The European Coordination of Air Traffic Controllers' Unions (ATCEUC) and the Cyprus Air Traffic Controllers Union (CYATCU) have called for urgent high-level international and European intervention to address persistent flight safety risks within the Nicosia Flight Information Region (FIR). This renewed demand comes in the wake of a near-miss incident involving a Turkish military aircraft and a civilian passenger plane.
According to Cyprus News Agency, both organizations issued separate letters on Thursday urging action. These letters highlight that, despite the European Commission's 14-year-old statement labeling the situation in the Nicosia FIR as 'unsustainable and unacceptable from a flight safety point of view,' no effective technical solution has been executed.
The calls for intervention follow an incident on August 19 involving a Turkish Air Force Airbus A400M transport aircraft and a TUI Airways Boeing 737-800. As described by ATCEUC, the Turkish military aircraft, operating under the callsign TUAF770, entered the Nicosia FIR without communication, diverging from its declared flight plan. The aircraft was climbing towards flight level FL360 near the Ankara FIR boundary, while the civilian plane, flight TOM56T, was descending through FL350 on a converging course. A serious incident was avoided only after air traffic controllers at the Nicosia Area Control Centre (ACC) identified the conflict and instructed the civilian plane to halt its descent.
The European federation stated that the incident underscores the unresolved challenges in the Nicosia FIR. It warned that Turkish military aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles continue to operate without effective coordination near critical air routes and Cyprus's main airports, Larnaca and Paphos.
CYATCU emphasized that safety risks should not rely solely on the vigilance of individual controllers, describing the August 19 incident as part of a recurring pattern faced by its members. Controllers reportedly contend daily with unauthorized Turkish military aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles operating in the FIR without filing flight plans with Nicosia or establishing two-way communication.
The union claimed that the absence of fatal accidents in the Nicosia FIR is not due to risk management by any institution involved, but rather due to the personal risk absorption by individual controllers over decades, a responsibility that should be assumed by international enforcement.
These interventions coincide with the 14-year mark since the European Commission expressed concern over reported dangerous incidents in the Nicosia FIR. In 2012, the Commission voiced 'deep concern' over the increasing incidents and the severe threat to aviation safety, while promising to develop a satisfactory technical solution. According to ATCEUC, no such solution has been announced or implemented, and direct communication between the Ankara and Nicosia air traffic control centers remains unestablished.
The federation has called for direct involvement of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an EU diplomatic initiative including the European Commission, Cyprus, and Trkiye, and a joint safety assessment by the European Commission and EUROCONTROL. They demand a clear, time-bound roadmap to restore effective operational coordination.
CYATCU supported these demands and insisted that Nicosia ACC controllers be directly involved in any safety assessments, stressing that any solution must not disadvantage Cyprus by restricting civil air traffic or reducing the island's connectivity.
ATCEUC President Jean-Denis Larr¨re emphasized the need for safe and predictable skies over the Eastern Mediterranean, governed by effective international cooperation and regulations. 'The time has come to turn the commitments of 2012 into a sustainable technical solution,' he asserted.