By Adrian Cojoc, DG ROMATSA
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I’ll be honest with you: when we found out that over 430 air traffic controllers from 85 associations were coming to our city, my first thought was — who is watching the skies?
Then I remembered. Your colleagues are. As always.
Now — I should also confess something. When preparing for today, I did what everyone does now: I asked an AI assistant to help draft a few remarks about the challenges facing ATM professionals worldwide.
It came back with a very confident, very detailed analysis of… waiting times at ATMs. Cash withdrawal limits. The future of contactless payments.
Apparently, “Air Traffic Management” and “Automated Teller Machines” share an abbreviation — and the machine made its choice.
I corrected it. But I’ll admit — for a brief moment — I thought: this is actually a reasonable metaphor. Both systems move things that people care deeply about, both require reliability around the clock, and when either one fails, there is immediately a queue and a lot of frustrated people.
The difference, of course, is that what you manage moves at 900 kilometres per hour and cannot be asked to please try again later.
This year’s conference theme — “Controllers: Attract them, Value them, Keep them” — could not be timelier, and I want to spend a few minutes on why it resonates so deeply with those of us who run an ANSP.
We live in an era of digital transformation. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation. The tools are becoming more powerful every year. And yet — and this is the point I want to make clearly today — the most critical asset of any Air Navigation Service Provider is not a system. It is not software. It is not a radar. It is a person.
It is the controller sitting at that console at 2 in the morning, in reduced visibility, with three aircraft converging, exercising judgment that no algorithm has yet been certified to replicate. It is the experienced mentor who passes not just procedure, but professional instinct, to the next generation. It is the team that holds together under pressure, because they trust each other.
I want to be careful here, because I am not dismissing automation. At ROMATSA, we invest in modern systems precisely because they reduce workload and improve safety margins.
Technology does not replace that. At its best, technology supports it.
Romania is a case in point. ROMATSA was the first ANSP in the world to implement FF-ICE — the next-generation flight data exchange standard that ICAO has been working toward for years. And since 2019, our controllers have been working with full electronic flight strips. Not a pilot project. Not a trial. Live, every day.
I mention this not to boast — well, perhaps a little — but to make a specific point: those implementations succeeded because our controllers were part of the process. They were trained, consulted, and trusted. The technology landed well because the people were ready for it. You cannot deploy a next-generation system into an organisation that hasn’t invested equally in its people. We learned that. It is worth saying out loud.
The IFATCA community has always understood this. The controllers in this room are not afraid of technology. They work with it every day. What they ask — what they have every right to ask — is that the systems they operate are fit for purpose, that their expertise is consulted in the design process, and that their contribution is recognised as central, not peripheral.
That brings me back to the theme. Attract them, Value them, Keep them.
Attracting controllers requires that we present this profession honestly — demanding, yes, but also meaningful, well-structured, and part of something larger than any individual shift.
Valuing them means more than compensation, though compensation matters. It means involving controllers in decisions that affect their work. It means listening when they flag a concern.
Keeping them — perhaps the hardest of the three — means offering a career path, not just a job. It means ensuring that the experience accumulated over ten or fifteen years is seen as an asset, not a cost.
We at ROMATSA are committed to all three. We are not here this week as spectators. We are here as active participants, because the challenges you are debating in these rooms are our challenges too.
Romania is proud to host this conference. Bucharest is a city that has navigated considerable turbulence in its own history — and emerged with its character intact. I hope that over the coming days you will find time to experience a little of it.
And I hope that the work of this conference — the resolutions passed, the policies shaped, the connections made — will contribute to an aviation system that is safer, more resilient, and better staffed, everywhere in the world.
Thank you.
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©2026 The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations (IFATCA). IFATCA is the recognized global body representing air traffic controller associations. Founded more than 60 years ago, IFATCA now represents professionals in over 130 countries, advocating for safety, efficiency, and the welfare of air traffic controllers worldwide.
