IFATCA's Spotlight Podcast
In our new podcast, IFATCA Spotlight, we shine a light on IFATCA's Member Associations. A podcast made by ATCOs for ATCOs to provide insight into different challenges and solutions found around the world.
IFATCA's Spotlight Podcast
Spotlight Episode 26 - Türkiye
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This episode of IFATCA's Spotlight podcast features the Turkish Air Traffic Controllers Association. Adem, a controller based in Istanbul, walks us through his own path into air traffic control via a university aviation program. Much of the conversation covers Istanbul's new airport, which opened in 2019 with multiple independent parallel runways enabling a high volume of daily operations and a "triple" simultaneous-approach concept, plus how earthquake risk shapes local procedures. They discuss airspace structure, the mix of English and Turkish R/T phraseology, and the association's welfare work for controllers (critical incident stress support) and social activities.
After the main episode, stay tuned (from around minute 24) for a preview of two upcoming events: the European regional IFATCA conference in Cappadocia in 2026, and the global annual conference (relocated from its original host) in spring 2027 near Istanbul's old airport, with practical tips on getting to/from the venue.
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SPEAKER_00Coming today to radar contact firefight level 670 compare passing level.
SPEAKER_01Welcome everybody to this special episode. Due to recent events, we had to add some information about the annual conference, which will be in Turkey towards the end of this recording. So if you want to skip to the ERM information only, you can skip roughly to minute 22. And if you're only interested in the annual conference, you can skip roughly to minute 24. And now the normal episode will start. Welcome to our podcast Ifadkar Spotlight, where we shine a light on a member association and find out what unique insights and expertise each member association brings to the Fatka family. My name is Torsten, I'm from Germany, and in this episode it's a pleasure to shine a light on Turkey and the local member association TATCA, the Turkish ETCO Association. Turkey is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia, with a smaller portion in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by eight countries Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest, Georgia to the northeast, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran to the east, and Iraq and Syria to the south, while also being surrounded by the Black, Aegean, and Mediterranean Sea. It has a population of about 86 million citizens. The official language is Turkish. The time zone is UTC plus three, but enough about dry facts. We want to know more straight from the source. And today our source is Adam. Welcome to the podcast, Adam. Thank you for having me today. Adam, how did you become an air traffic controller and why?
SPEAKER_00Well, I studied civil aviation management in university, and ever since I got accepted into the university, I always had a dream job of becoming an air traffic controller. And so my plan was that uh throughout my four-year bachelor degree course. And after graduating, I followed the required steps to become one. And that's why I'm an air traffic controller. So basically a dream job.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. I love it when uh people achieve their dreams. But you mentioned the steps. So step one would be having a bachelor degree, any degree. And what did you have to do then?
SPEAKER_00Well, so in Tudorke, to become an air traffic controller, you either have to uh graduate from an air traffic control course from university, so it's a four-year course, and you graduate with a bachelor's degree. And currently there's only two universities that have that course in Tudokia. Other than that, ANSP trains their own ATC personnel. So what they do is the requirement for that to be able to apply for the selection program is you have to have a bachelor degree, and it doesn't matter in what course you have it. And after you you've been selected for the program, the ANSP trains its own air traffic controller. And you have to finish all the modules it gives you. And once you graduate, uh you start at where the ANSP has appointed you to, and that's basically how you become an air traffic controller in Tivky. So where were you needed? Uh basically what the ANSP does is say that I'm going to open an 80-person trainee program this year, and so 20 or that uh trainee will be in appointed to Istanbul, 10 would be appointed to Bodrum, five will be appointed to Ankara, and so on. So they it's all pre-planned. And after that you have a grading process, and then you actually make a selection of where you want to go. And so the highest graded personnel goes to wherever he wants, and then yeah, it just goes down below. So it is kind of complicated, sort of. Did you try to get to Istanbul? Istanbul was my uh it was my first choice. I wanted to be in Istanbul because I do like to work in let's say hectic environments. Yes, we're gonna go into that. Yeah, in dense environments. So yeah, I mean uh it was my first choice, and I was appointed to Istanbul, and I've been here since 2018. So 2018, past eight years.
SPEAKER_01Cool. We'll talk about that in a in a second. Let's go into TATCA, the Turkish Air Traffic Controllers Association.
SPEAKER_00What's the history there? Okay, so Tatka was originally founded in 1975, but uh due to the let's say political status of the country, the activities were suspended in 1980 and it wasn't resumed until 1992. And after the reapplication progress, Tatka's activities were resumed in 1992 and it's been operating ever since till this day.
SPEAKER_01And member of the FATKA family. Awesome.
SPEAKER_00We were accepted into Fatka in 1996, I think. Should be that. We have one headquarters located in Istanbul, and we have uh nine additional branches throughout the country. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And how many ATKs do you represent? How many Atkas does this uh Turkey have?
SPEAKER_00Turkey uh has an approximate of 2,000 atkos. Mm-hmm. Yeah, with the male to female ratio of 65 to 35 percent male.
SPEAKER_01Really good. Let's get back to ATCO stuff. All right, um, let's get a broad overview. And I mean it's a pretty big country, diverse uh geography. How many airports do you have in Turkey?
SPEAKER_00Well, we do have a large landscape, so uh we have fifty-eight airports where the NSP provides services.
SPEAKER_01And even though Ankara is the capital of Turkey, uh the busiest airport I think is Istanbul, is that correct?
SPEAKER_00Yes, it is correct. Uh I think it's due, well, it should be due to the strategical location of the state and the population. I mean, you've got eighty-six million uh country population with fifteen million being Istanbul. So it is a large city.
SPEAKER_01So, and that's your area of expertise, that's the place uh where you work. Tell us about that new airport you have in Istanbul.
SPEAKER_00Istanbul Airport was opened in officially opened in 2019. Before that, it was Istanbul Otatuk Airport, located south side of the Istanbul Airport. Uh it is a large airport, one of the biggest in the world. We have right now five parallel runways, three of them being independent. We do have an approximate 15 to 700 movements per day in a 24-hour period. And that's Istanbul Airport only. What else? So the main operation is parallel runway operations, independent parallel runway operations. During peak times, we do do triple runway operations, which is a new concept that's been implemented last year. I think it's the first in Europe. Yeah, pretty much.
SPEAKER_01What uh interested me was with parallel runways, when you've got more than three, you run into problems with the naming. So, what's the solution you chose in Istanbul?
SPEAKER_00So in Istanbul, the designators for the runway are basically different for all of them. So they all have the same magnetic uh heading course, uh, which is 354. Uh what they did is they did the most left side runway 3-4 left, and then you'd have the adjacent runway 3-4 right, and then runway 3-5 left, runway 3-5 right, and then you'd have runway 3-6. So the designators go plus one or minus one according to the position of the runway.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it sounds like a good idea, to be honest, to just make sure that it's clear which runway you're approaching to.
SPEAKER_00It's to avoid confusions, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. All these runways are being used for departures and approaches at the same time. Exactly. And do you have a kind of dedicated landing direction that you prefer to use or that's mostly used to wind?
SPEAKER_00Mostly it's a northern configuration. So it will be runway 3 4 left, 3-5 right, and runway 3-6, depending on the traffic density or the operation. We choose to do a dual runway operation and uh we coordinate it with the tower which runways are going to be dedicated for takeoffs and which runways are going to be dedicated for land. So Yeah, basically that's how the operation works, and we do triple runway operations during peak hours with nighttime rushes and triple runway simultaneous departures on peak departure times that will be in the morning.
SPEAKER_01Talking about peaks, like what's the traffic flow like into Istanbul?
SPEAKER_00You'd have either an east side peak or a west side peak, depending on the time of the day. If the traffic count is high, the supervisor decides to announce a triple runway operation, and then we'd have the configuration and that goes set up accordingly. It's either a approach density traffic or a departure density traffic. You wouldn't have a triple runway operation approaches or departures at the same time. So it's one or the other. And during the approach time, the supervisor would decide and announce the operation if it's required. Uh if not, we do a dual runway operation. And during the peak departure time, which is in the morning, uh Tower would declare a triple runway departure operation. So they would depart simultaneously off three runways. What about the old airport you mentioned? Is that still in use? Yes, the old airport, you had three runways active, but now it's only one runway. It's close to commercial flights, passenger flights. Uh VIP traffics only, I think, with state aircraft in it. It is active. I mean, it does have 60 to 100 movements per day right now. Mm-hmm. And then we have the second major airport, which is Sabia Gukjan, on the Asian side of the state.
SPEAKER_01You mentioned the eastern airport. Is that far enough away to not be a huge factor?
SPEAKER_00I mean, it doesn't overlap each other in procedure-wise, but due to the movement count, so you'd have an approximate 1,500, 1600 for Istanbul plus 800 movements for the eastern airport, Sabia Gurchjan, which is also a major airport uh within Europe as well, statistics-wise. And then you'd have a hundred for the old airport, so you'd have approximate 2400 movements per day in the TMA. So yeah, it is a dense environment, traffic-wise. But uh the procedures don't cause any difficulties at the moment, right now, if all is well, let's say.
SPEAKER_01Right, right, right. If all is well, that's actually a nice point. So what are the factors that might play into it not being that well? Uh do you have weather patterns that play a role?
SPEAKER_00Well, is weather always nice in Turkey? Well, it depends. I mean, most of the time the weather is nice, but you do have like, say, five, six bad weather days, like really bad weather days, that really does affect the traffic flow in Istanbul. And at those times, yeah, I mean, you have heavy traffic, you have bad weather, it just gets hectic. It does become difficult, but you do have uh qualified air traffic controllers that you know pull it off.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, those are the days that we we really earn our money.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Let's talk about where you actually work, like the physical location.
SPEAKER_00So physical location wise, our approach facility is located in uh the old airport, so in this case, Istanbul Atatuk Airport. And so that's where we run the whole operation for the Istanbul Approach facility, uh the Istanbul TMA. How how big is the Istanbul TMA? Height wise, it's from the mean sea level to flight level 245. So that's pretty high. Yeah. Yeah, it is it is a high dimension, height wise and uh lengthwise, 80 miles.
SPEAKER_01Something else people tend to think of when they think of Turkey is sometimes you have got earthquakes.
SPEAKER_00Did you ever experience one at work? We did. I think it was a small one, not quite sure of the magnitude, but uh yeah, I personally experienced one when I was at work. But I mean, living in in an earthquake country, you get used to it. So it is a scary event, but like I said, you get used to it once you go through it a lot.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, people people adapt, and I mean uh the procedures adapt as well. So what's the kind of procedure what to do?
SPEAKER_00So on the final approach, if a traffic's about to land, I mean Taboli clear as a go-around due to an earthquake. And then we plan a runway inspection, a quick one, if there's any disinformations on the runway, any cracks or so. Yeah, and then if it's all clear, the operation just resumes.
SPEAKER_01That's really cool. So we we mentioned that you've got a huge approach unit in Istanbul. That means you've got the towers at the airports, and then you have got how many ACCs in Turkey?
SPEAKER_00Turkey's ACC is only one. We only have one area control center, and that's located in the capital city of Turkia, which is Ankara, and they oversee the whole transit and area control from one facility.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So that means that uh you've got other approach units as well. Yes, we do.
SPEAKER_00Uh I think it was six airports. Major airports have radar approach facilities. Uh where would that be? So you've got Izmir Airport, uh, located on the southwestern side of Turkia. Uh you've got Moola Bodrum Airport, International Airport. It's in the approximate same region, southwestern side. You've got Moola Dalaman Airport, so that's three. Uh you've got Antalya Airport, it's four. You've got uh the capital airport, Ankaraisambo, which is the approach is actually done by the ACC there, so it's in the same unit. Okay, right. You've got one to the uh north side, Trabzon Airport, International Airport.
SPEAKER_01Even one more. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they've got an uh radar approach facility there as well.
SPEAKER_01I talk about the airspace. Normally you would now tell me that what kind of airspace classes you have, but there's something peculiar in in uh Turkey. You only have controlled and uncontrolled airspace, is that correct?
SPEAKER_00Exactly, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00We don't have a airspace classification, so it's either controlled or uncontrolled, the majority of it being controlled airspace. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And how do you work with um VFR traffic? How is that handled then?
SPEAKER_00So the VFR traffics have their own uh routes, VFR routes uh published in the uh Turkish AIP, and they are allowed to fly below 1500 feet. And if there were to request a climb, uh they would have to coordinate that. So they would have to speak with the ATSCO and be clear to the altitude they want to climb to. We have a non-VFR zone that doesn't permit the VFR traffics to enter because it affects the approach operation in Istanbul, and that's the only place that I'm not allowed to enter, besides the you know, restricted air spaces and dangerous air spaces and all that. That's the only thing I could put that's specific. And yeah, other than that, if you want to climb, you speak to us. If not, 1,500 feet below. Right.
SPEAKER_01I love the idea of a non-VFR zone, to be honest. But talking about traffic and speaking to traffic, what kind of language do you normally use?
SPEAKER_00So 99% of the time it's English, but local traffic's and you know, undue unusual situations we are allowed to speak Turkish as well. Right. So you've got Turkish phraseology? I don't think we do. I mean, I do use Turkish phraseology, but I'm not th I'm not sure it's something that's published. But you've got phrases that uh you you normally use, so what would be clear to land or something like that? Yeah, yeah. So clear to land will be in sadbest, clear for takeoff would be kalkish sarbest. I'm excluding the runway designators and clear to climb flight level 240 would be Utrusvjes ikidotsufratisarbest. So Sarbest will be the clearance factor word.
SPEAKER_01Right, right, right, right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's basically how it goes.
SPEAKER_01So that sounds very phraseology like and uh air traffic controller in Turkish, what would that be?
SPEAKER_00That would be Havatrafik controller. I got at least two words there somewhere. So Hava being air, traffic being traffic, and controller being controller.
SPEAKER_01Like it. Um and the general layout, do you work in executive and planner pairs or so? Do you have the four-eye principle in Turkey?
SPEAKER_00We do. Uh in the most, let's say almost all the radar approach facilities do work within the concept of the four-eye principle. Uh, but it depends on the traffic flow and you know staff count and all that. But yeah, 90% of the time we could say we work in a four-eyed principle. So you'd have an executive controller and a player controller that assists you.
SPEAKER_01Perfect. And uh to get along better with each other, do you have some kind of team resource management?
SPEAKER_00Well, you do work in pairs and in teams in shifts, so you do work with each other for a long period of time. But team resource management-wise, we don't have anything. Okay, but the association is doing some stuff. Talk about that. So uh what our association does is we uh we hold a annual uh Sanatsco pilot panel where we invite our uh uh colleagues from different airports and we invite pilots from different airliners within Turkia to you know assess the sector's uh problems, be it traffic-wise, be it differently, if we have any requests from them, if they have any requests from us, and then we just each do a presentation and assess all the different problems, uh what we look forward to, and so on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love it when you get in contact with the pilots on the other side, basically. We're we're working so closely together without actually seeing each other quite often.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. I mean it is pretty informative, so we try to hold it every year. We held the fifth one this year, so it's been five years since we've been doing this.
SPEAKER_01Cool. That sounds like a good idea. I love it. Critical incident stress management. If anything goes wrong, um do you have that from the uh ANSP? Not that I know of, no. Okay. But talking about fun stuff then, Echo Sports events. Sure. What's the national sport in Turkey? But the major sport is football. Yeah. It sounds so so normal, but there are quite a few places where it isn't that. Uh but so you you you guys uh participate in the uh some kind of soccer cups?
SPEAKER_00We participated in the European Cup this year held in Bulgaria. I don't think we did so well, but it's it's about participation. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, and before that, I think we participated in a Black Sea Regional Cup, something like that. I'm not quite sure of the name. Yeah, sounds interesting. That's cool. Like the the guys that work in a same area like together. And we do look forward to attending the others as well. We'll see how it goes.
SPEAKER_01And uh talking about upcoming stuff. First of all, let's stick again to Istanbul. What's being done there? Is the airport finished?
SPEAKER_00The airport is not finished actually. It is a massive airport. I mean, it's huge. What they did is they had uh construction phases. The airport originally opened with two parallel runways, and then the third one was implemented. And I don't know what phase they are on right now, but so they are now undergoing a construction of a western-eastern runway, which would be 0927. And that's planned to be opened in I think August this year. So, yeah, huge airport, a lot of runways.
SPEAKER_01And you've still got a little bit of space until you reach uh your neighboring country, so still space to expand. It is huge. Uh awesome to see. I I look at a bird's eye view at the moment and I can see the runway under construction there already. Is that the final plan or do you already have plans for further extensions already? Do you know?
SPEAKER_00There's a lot of phases uh for the construction plan, but it's not final. So the 0927 runway isn't final, I'm pretty sure.
SPEAKER_01Right. Right. And what's the association doing? What uh do they have planned?
SPEAKER_00So we kind of do social events mostly. Uh I'm not talking about ERM right now, so yeah. That's good that's coming right afterwards. Yeah, so uh we do organize a huge gala dinner on the 20th October International Atko Day every year. We have an approximate 500 participants every year. We try to do it in convenient locations where atkos from around the country can attend, uh, mostly being in Istanbul. Even in 2024, the former Executive Vice President Frederick was our guest. So yeah, we do hold social events, like I said, we do hold picnics, events, and then we have the ERM.
SPEAKER_01Yes. I love the idea about the gala, but okay, since you mentioned it again, let's go into the European Regional Meeting ERM, which is being held in 2026 in Turkia. So where exactly is it gonna be? When is it gonna be? What can you tell us?
SPEAKER_00So the European regional meeting will be held in Turkia Kapadokia between the dates 13 and 15th October. Transportation wise, you could fly into either Istanbul Airport or Sabia Gyukchen Airport, and then you have three different airliners to choose from from there. And you could either fly into K City Airport or Neveshear Kapadokia Airport. So the region is located between these two regional airports. So when you're flying into K City or Kappadokia after Istanbul, you'd have to take a road transportation to the region, basically. Right.
SPEAKER_01In the heart of Turkey, yeah. Yes. Looks like a little mountainous region. If if people want to spend some more time uh outside of the ERM, what could they do?
SPEAKER_00You've got a lot of options to choose from. I mean, uh, you've got the major attraction being the Halt Air Balloon ride. You could go see some open air museums, visit some underground ancient city type structures. You've got the love valley to visit, uh, you've got trekking routes you could take. There's a lot of activities you could do. I mean, for more specific information, you could visit the website ern2026.com. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna uh say that again, uh Echerome Mike2026.com. Exactly. That's where all the information is and where you can register. We ran through everything, I think. Since your English is so good, we're ahead of schedule. I was normally born and raised in Australia, so yeah. Okay, thank you so much for hosting this year's regional meeting. It's uh gonna be really, really cool, I'm I'm sure. And so that just leaves us with saying goodbye. How do you say goodbye in Turkey?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so let's phrase it as Bini Arlodon Zicintish. That's pretty long. What does it mean? So, what it means is thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01Uh, take care of yourself, see you around. Thank you so much. Take care of yourself, Adam. Thank you. Goodbye. Thanks, Thorsten. Welcome back, Adam. We meet again. Recent events, unfortunate events are the reason. The annual conference had to move away from Uganda and it has been moved to Turkey, and you're the expert. So, did you expect that much work to come with it?
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, we've been a candidate for past three, four years now. I mean, it's sad that Uganda missed out on the opportunity, but we are happy on our behalf. It's a lot of work, but we'll pull through. It's a work in progress right now, but we're happy uh with our progress right now. And yeah, we expect this much work we were prepared for the last three, four years, so everything's working out fine right now. Awesome.
SPEAKER_01So we're gonna keep this short and sweet now. First things first, when is the annual conference going to be?
SPEAKER_00So the annual conference will be between the 12th and 16th of April 2027. Those are the dates. So those haven't moved.
SPEAKER_01That's good to good to hear. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's that's the calendar right now. Where is it gonna be in Turkey? Uh the conference is gonna be located in Istanbul, the largest city of Turkia. The conference hotel will be WAW Hotel, and the accommodation will be in WOW Hotel as well. But you'll have two options so a five-star option and a four-star option. And the hotels are located next to each other. And then we will add a third option, a third accommodation option. Uh that's going to be announced when our website will be online. And the launch of the website will be around the 15th of September. Give or take a few days. Yeah, and that's basically the location of it.
SPEAKER_01Perfect, thank you so much. Uh so if everybody anybody wants to look it up on uh any kind of map service on the internet, it is uh Visky Oscar Visky Istanbul Hotel. It is located right next to the old airport. And if you have listened to the interview, you will know that unfortunately we were probably not gonna be landing there because nobody will be able to get a VIP flight. Um we will do our best, but it's probably not gonna happen. So you either land in the uh Istanbul airport or at the Asian side airport, and you have to get to the conference center either with cabs or with public transport. What are the options to get a cab? What's the easiest way?
SPEAKER_00The easiest way if you're landing in Istanbul Airport, uh, they've got a cab service. So after you've landed and you know went through customs and exit the airport, you will have a cab line you could enter there. That's the most likely option. So you've basically only have the chance to grab a cab from the airport's cab service, or you could use the public transportation, which is located underground of the Istanbul Airport. You've got shuttle services that take you to the various parts of the city. If you take a shuttle service there, you could grab a cab after you've exited your shuttle, maybe a little more economic. You've got public transport, you've got metro stations, you could use that as well with all the connecting metros and stuff. So that's the basic way to get to your Web Hotel. So two options only public transport and taxis or cabs. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right. How do you get a cab? Do you have any kind of app service?
SPEAKER_00In Istanbul Airport, the app services won't work because cabs that are not from the Istanbul Airport are not allowed to uh pick passengers. Yeah, so you'll have to take the airport's cabs, and like I said, after you exit the airport, there's a cab line, you get into line, and there's a lot of circulation, so you won't have to wait. Other than that, if you're gonna use cabs within the city, you've got two apps. You've got BTAxi, that's buy taxi in English, so that will be Brava India, Tango Alpha, Kilo, Sierra India. If you use that app, you could call a cab to your location. Uh, you've got another one called Yandex Go. So these are the two apps I recommend if you're gonna take a cab. You could pay online or pay in cash after your ride. So you could use these two app applications as your cab service. Other than that, there's a lot of taxis going around, so you could just, you know, call uh hand out to one off the street if you find one.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. And that applies to both airports. Yes, both airports. Perfect. What else?
SPEAKER_00If you want a recommendation on which airport you would like to land, I'd suggest Istanbul airport because it's closer. Sabia Girchen is a little farther away, so Istanbul Airport might be better, but you know, the ticket prices for flights and all that, Sabia Girchen might be cheaper. So that's all up to a personal preference right now. So yeah, you can do your research and see what's better for you.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Thank you so much. Adam, you mentioned the website just to make sure everybody knows that which website is gonna be.
SPEAKER_00It's gonna be iFatka2027.com. We're hopefully going to launch it uh in the midth of this month, so probably until the 15th of September. Give or take a few days. Uh it's a work in progress, and once it's online, it will be announced and everyone could look up all the details how to register, how to, you know, go to the hotel and from. And yeah, you will have all the information on the website, hopefully.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Thank you so much, Adam.
SPEAKER_00Have a great day and thank you for being with me again. Yeah, thank you, Thorsten. Likewise.