A6 Alliance members present their history at Chopin Airport

While the air traffic in Poland and Europe is returning, on Wednesday (July 1) an exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of air traffic control (ATC) was inaugurated at Warsaw Chopin Airport. This is another initiative of the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency and the largest European providers of air navigation services associated in the A6 Alliance, which is chaired by the president of PANSA Janusz Janiszewski.

Photos presenting the history of air traffic control at various European airports over the past 100 years were to be an important point of this year’s World ATM Congress in Madrid. The ceremonial inauguration of the exhibition prepared by the European ANSP agencies was planned to take place at the Polish Embassy in Madrid. Unfortunately, due to a coronavirus pandemic, the congress was cancelled, therefore the decision to postpone the opening of the exhibition was made.

– We decided that the inauguration of international flights from Poland is a great opportunity to present the exhibition to a wider audience, and Warsaw Chopin Airport is the perfect place. Today, aviation has begun the process of waking up from a coma. Therefore, wondering what it will look like in a few months or years, it is worth stopping for a moment to see how air traffic control once looked – said President Janusz Janiszewski.

From the left: Mariusz Szpikowski, president of PPL, Ewa Suchora-Natkaniec, deputy president of PANSA, Janusz Janiszewski, president of PANSA.

– At Chopin Airport we are happy that we can make our space available for interesting and valuable exhibitions. The current one perfectly matches the series of educational and historical exhibitions showing the achievements of our country. The moment to launch this exhibition is perfect – today we are launching the next stage of defrosting air traffic, and life comes back to the airport – said Mariusz Szpikowski, President of PPL, Director of Chopin Airport.

The origins of ATC date back to the 1920s, and the last hundred years is a history intertwined with the most important and tragic events in European history. Air traffic control has played and will continue to play a key role in this development. Its units and their continuous modernization and development allow millions of passengers every day to safely reach all parts of our globe.

We invite everyone to a photographic journey showing the age of ATC! For those who plan their journey a bit later and cannot see it, the online version is available at: a6alliance.net/theageofatc