EANA boosts ATCO roster with 24 new entrants through scholarship programme

The new hires, fresh out of EANA’s Scholarship Programme, completed their ab initio ATCO Training Course and were given a welcome reception at a ceremony held at Ezeiza International Airport, located south-west of downtown Buenos Aires.

The scholarship programme was designed to attract and provide professional opportunities to young talents while helping to meet operational demand for ATCOs and strengthening an essential public service. It is a key part of the company’s drive to boost excellence in the air navigation service country-wide, with staffing and training as two of the main pillars of its Strategic Plan 2020-2024.

The welcome ceremony was headed by EANA President & CEO Gabriela Logatto, with a number of representatives from the aviation sector also in attendance. “This is a historical as well as management milestone that fills us with a sense of satisfaction and pride, because we have realized a scholarship programme for ab initio Air Traffic Controllers. The scholarship programme was one of our main goals right from the start when I was appointed in early 2020, because providing an essential service like ours without the necessary human resources is simply unthinkable,”  Logatto said in her welcome address.

Training of the new ATCOs took place at the CIPE (Centro de Instrucción, Perfeccionamiento y Experimentación) air navigation career center, a National Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC) institute at Ezeiza airport. The new traffic control staff will be assigned to airports in three provinces – Junín de los Andes, San Martín de los Andes and Neuquén City in Neuquén province; Bariloche (Rio Negro); Mar del Plata (Buenos Aires); and those in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

To date, EANA has awarded 128 scholarships at the federal level, with 61 new entrants already employed as ATCOs through what the company sees as a very successful scholarship, training and hiring programme.