Fintraffic’s Air Navigation Services is responsible for the infrastructure and system design and maintenance required for the air navigation services of airports. Our operations are in line with international requirements.
Technical air navigation services include the equipment, systems and tools that are used in air traffic services. These are the information, radio and radar systems used around Finland and the equipment that aircraft use for navigation and landing.
The most important task of technical air navigation services is to maintain the equipment and services in a manner that ensures that operations are safe and efficient and that the agreed response times are achieved. Safety is partly ensured by requiring ATSEP (Air Traffic Safety Electronics Personnel) qualification from everyone authorised to technically maintain systems. Passing certain pre-determined courses is a requirement for ATSEP qualification. The validity of the qualifications is monitored. Systems and equipment maintenance is carried out according to plans, and safety is ensured with several methods. Safety assessments are carried out on changes planned to be made to air navigation systems, and the changes are approved by the authorities (Traficom) before they can be implemented. Traficom also carries out its own safety assessment or any significant changes. Around 200 technical changes are made each year.
Technology is constantly advancing, and the professional skills of personnel are kept up to date by providing training. In addition to Fintraffic’s Air Navigation Services’ own personnel, work is subcontracted and for the most vital systems, factory-level maintenance agreements have been made with the equipment manufacturers. Safety is always the focus in air navigation services. Therefore, any new technology introduced must be tested in practice and found reliable.
Traficom annually audits the operations of technical air navigation services, and intervenes with any deficiencies found. Fintraffic’s Air Navigation Services is contractually responsible for aerial measurement at Finnish airports, and also provides these services in Estonia as well. We have also been responsible for the COM & NAV maintenance services of five airports in Sweden (Kalmar, Karlstad, Jönköping, Norrköping, Skellefteå) since the beginning of 2021.