Mirjana Čizmarov, Director of the Civil Aviation Directorate
Predrag Jovanović, Director of Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services (SMATSA)
Aviation is one of the branches of industry that changes the most and the fastest, and which is always confronted by new challenges. Speaking about this, but also efforts that are exerted to maintain an enduring reputation and image built over many years, are the leaders of civil aviation and commercial flight control of Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia’s Civil Aviation Directorate has been receiving increasingly more positive reports and acknowledgements from international aviation institutions year after year, along with the flight controllers of Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services, which is a synonym for a successful, modern and respectable service provider in aviation navigation.
Safety is the priority of civil aviation… Are our skies and our airports safe?
– Mirjana Čizmarov: The sky above Serbia and our airports are absolutely safe, which is confirmed each year with numerous positive reports from international aviation institutions. The standardised inspections of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regularly monitor and control our work and confirm that the level of standardisation in Serbia is higher than in many European Union member states.
How is Serbia’s progress in terms of European integration when it comes to the field of air traffic?
– Mirjana Čizmarov: viewed from the perspective of aviation, Serbia has long since been in the European Union. The high aviation standards that we fulfil resulted in the election and re-election of the director of the Civil Aviation Directorate of Serbia as the Vice-President of the Provisional Council of Eurocontrol, and we’ve just completed the Republic of Serbia’s Presidency of the Standing Commission of Eurocontrol. Also confirming that we’re on the right track was the inspection of the Federal Aviation Administration of the U.S.A., which classified Serbia in so-called “FAA Category 1”, which enabled our national airline to establish direct air transport with the U.S. We are extremely pleased with what’s been achieved, and at the same time extremely grateful to all those who contributed to our successes, primarily the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, other ministries with which we’ve cooperated successfully, bodies and organisations in the Republic of Serbia, aviation companies etc.
According to the assessments of global experts, in Serbia – thanks to to adequately trained and highly professional staff – the highest standards are applied in the field of aviation safety
I expect that, with the support of our government, as soon as possible, we will take Serbia into the European Common Aviation Area, that we will become a full member of EASA, participate even more actively in the work of all international aviation organisations, intensify and further enhance cooperation with civil aviation authorities in the region and in this way ensure our development of safe and secure civil aviation.
How would you rate the past year?
– Predrag Jovanovic: In the area of the jurisdictions of SMATSA it’s been marked by constant in traffic, such that several historic results were achieved in 2018. We served more than 700,000 civil aviation flights that fly according to the rules for instrumental flight, while in July and August we repeatedly served more than 3,000 flights per day, and in the most heavily burdened hour had over 220 flights.
SMATSA also provides services for the flights of military aircraft in the airspace of Serbia and Montenegro and provides services for eight airports in the two countries, four of which are international. We are one of the initiators of the Southeast Europe Common Airspace Creation (SECSI) project, which has been applied in sic countries from Austria to Bulgaria, and for which SMATSA received recognition at the World Air Traffic Management Congress, held in Madrid from 12th to 14th March.