Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure’s Minister, Mr. Tomislav Momirović together with SMATSA CEO, Mr. Predrag Jovanović went to see civil works on the construction of new Aerodrome Control Tower as well as on Air Traffic Control Centre Beograd building.

– Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services SMATSA Llc and Airport “Nikola Tesla” will get new control tower after 60 years. Existing tower at Airport “Nikola Tesla” Beograd was built in 1962 and it does not fully meet all users’ requirements, having in mind insufficient available space and impossibility for modernization and installation of additional technical equipment and systems in the tower dome. Building a new, 75 meters high control tower with operational room of 120 square meters at the top of tower, where state of the art equipment shall be implemented, will provide conditions for continuous and qualitative air traffic control services provision, considering increase of capacity and number of air operations at Airport Beograd – pointed out CEO Jovanović.

– After many decades we are investing in new control tower and not only SMATSA and aviation sector will be proud of it but also whole Republic of Serbia. Right now, we are part of the huge investments cycles and everyone knows that we are designing and erecting more than 1.200 kilometers of high ways, then we are building the fastest railway in East Europe, but somehow it is neglected that we have enormous investments with our partners from VANCI in Airport “Nikola Tesla”, that we are reconstructing Airport in Niš, which will be three times bigger than existing one. Additional financial means have been invested in Airport “Ponikve”, also we plan to invest in Airport “Morava”, so that aviation sector, together with SMATSA, Civil Aviation Directorate, Air Serbia and Airports, will completely move forward standards in the next few years -stated Minister Momirović.

The total value of this project is 17,443,869 euros, and we expect that all works will be finished at the end of 2021. After that we will have taking over of the civil works, commissioning of the finished facility. At the beginning of 2022 we plan to implement equipment and systems for air traffic control services provision as well as required integration with other systems. Project operational portion investment value is approximately 4,900,000 euros.

SMATSA CEO and Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure’s Minister congratulated to the ATCOs for their International Day of Air Traffic Control Officers, which is marked every year on October 21, and reminded us that ATCOs are those who are always conducting very demanding and responsible job at the best professional level.