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With the last weekend the tourist season really started. From Thursday to Sunday, we recorded a total of 353 air operations.

* Under air operation are considered all take-offs, landings, T&G, overflights  ....

Amadej Kozjak is an air traffic controller in Portorož, who shared his working experience with us and we are happy to share it with you. 

12/06/2020 Portorož Airport

Working at a small airport has its own particularities and it is one of the reasons why I love my job.

The air traffic controller in Portorož is responsible for maneuvering areas at the airport (runway 15-33 and taxilines) and for the entire CTR and TMA. We control a relatively small piece of airspace (above the Slovenian coast), which is squeezed between the terminal of Ronchi Airport and the terminal of Pula. Because there is not a lot of space, the traffic is quite complex and with many conflicts (crossing aircrafts). That's why controller’s attention must be wisely distributed between situations taking place at the same time on the runway and in the air. 

The work is responsible and does not allow any mistakes. It requires challenging work selection. 

Portorož Airport has a strategic location, as it is geographically well located in the heart of Europe. It is characterized by a combination of VFR and IFR traffic, professional and sports pilots, accents from all across the EU from the Balkans to Scandinavia, with most of the guests from German-speaking countries. Our customers represent a significant share of a higher price range guests to our tourist destinations and stimulate the economy on the Slovenian coast.

After the Corona break, both the controllers and the pilots are a bit "wooden", so we need extra care, patience, understanding and adaptation.

On the attached clip you can hear the last half hour of my shift as executive controller. A lot happens in the air in half an hour. Prior to that, I worked 1.5 hours as an assistant / planner (coordinating departures / arrivals with neighboring sectors - Ronchi, Pula, Ljubljana and with the airport), and then for an hour and a half took the position of executive controller where I am in contact with pilots through our frequency 124.875 MHz. After 3 hours of work, the controller is given an hour break, which comes in right time.

You will hear why this work requires long-term concentration, patience, speed of decision-making and assertiveness. The frequency is occupied more than 60% of the time, which is considered "Heavy traffic".

On such days, it becomes clear how urgent it is to implement the spatial plan of Portorož International Airport, which has been dragging on for more than a decade. Portorož Airport has the status of the third international airport in Slovenia and as such, is one of the most important infrastructure facilities in this part of Slovenia. The current outdated airport infrastructure and the too short runway are hampering this necessary development and, above all, making it impossible for larger and increasingly technologically advanced aircraft to land safely.

When the grass terrain is wet, there is a little space left to park the planes. In situations like this, we all have to work together - inventing new types of possibilities to accept all the customers and not to refuse traffic.

At this point, I would like to commend our receptionists, who help a lot to ensure that customers always like to come back to us, as they provide fast, unbureaucratic and friendly passengers handling. Also in foreign languages, of course.

And, of course I have to point out an outstanding work from Airport workers. Their job includes parking aircrafts, arrival planning and re-parking (due to space constraints), refueling, RWY inspections and ensuring that it is safe to use, taking care of maintenance of airport equipment, etc. and with all this, the provision of a firefighting category. Even today, they were preventively activated due to the plane, which went "go around" for the second time (through its own fault), and they were ready to intervene along the runway in a less of 3 minutes. Before the pilot in question even turned to "base" for the next attempt. Luckily he safely land on third try and we were all able to quietly close the “emergency checklists”. Hats off, guys.

Here, I appeal to the decision-makers in the government to put the plans into practice once and for all and provide our airport with much-needed infrastructure, thus enabling the development of both the airport and the entire coastal region. Thanks!

Long live Portorož!