Preparing for summer 2025 – the Skyguide approach
To find out more about how CANSO Members are preparing for Europe’s summer peak in traffic, Johnny Pring, CANSO’s Manager Europe Policy and Advocacy, has conducted a series of short interviews with Chief Operating Officers (COO) from all over Europe. In the second interview of this series, Johnny spoke to Skyguide COO Urs Lauener, about how the Swiss ANSP is preparing for possibly its busiest summer yet.
What traffic situation do you expect in Switzerland this summer compared to last summer?
We expect a traffic volume that is slightly higher than in the previous year, and increase of between two and four per cent.
We also expect the volatility of traffic at a very high level (as in the past) and we have to be prepared for difficult meteorological conditions.
We have implemented a set of measures allowing us to diminish possible delay and/or ad additional capacity. Some examples of these are:
- Developed a Sector Meteo forecast
- Developed a break optimiser to improve overall efficiency
- Adapted the occupancy sector capacity to new entry counts sector capacity in GVA ACC
- Increased entry counts sector capacity and occupancy sector capacity in Zurich ACC
- Deployed a roster based on a fully flexible sector optimisation scheme
- Developed ATFCM activities on D-1 (to improve efficiency)
For Zurich Airport we will have a dedicated MET forecaster at our disposal to support the supervisors in taking decisions about the applicable OPS concept.
What measures is Skyguide taking to ensure you will have enough staff available to deal with the expected traffic?
Our training pipeline is full, so we use maximum training capacity to train new ATCOs. And based on the new Collective Labour Agreement we have implemented a completely new roster with slightly longer shift lengths, allowing the ATCOs to better cope with the effects of fatigue. This new roster has also allowed us to reduce overlaps in shifts and thus improve productivity.
How is Skyguide working with the Network Manager (NM), airlines and airports to prepare for the summer?
We work very closely with NM in all domains and support the NM initiatives.
How will Skyguide continue to ensure a high level of safety during busy summer periods?
A safe conduct of traffic is always our first priority. We adapt to each and every situation and we take appropriate measures to guarantee safe operations.
What long-term solutions do you believe are needed for Skyguide to be able to provide more capacity in future summer travel periods?
Our mid-to long-term solution is, and remains, the implementation of our Virtual Centre Programme. With this we will inject new technology to better support the ATCOs in doing their job, thus allowing them to handle more traffic. Having this concept in place will provide us with a massive capacity boost for the future.
