Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

The Minister of Transport Peter Mutafchiev will open the 23^rd European Regional IFATCA Conference – The International Federation of the ATC associations, tomorrow October 21, 2006 in Hotel “Princes”, Sofia, at 9am.

Host of the event is the BULATSA – the Bulgarian ATC Association, under the patronage of Minister Mutafchiev. Official gests are the Director-General of the European Organization for aviation safety EUROCONTROL Victor Aguado, the President and Chief Director-Executive of IFATSA Mark Baumgartner.

Bulgaria is for a first time host of such an event. Representatives of all ATC organizations from 41 European countries and 7 leading firms for ATC technical support will attend the forum. Topical questions, connected with the professional, technical, administrative and social support of ATC will be discussed.

The main accent during the meeting will be the presentation of the EU Open Sky Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to strengthen the safety standards, as well as the whole effectiveness of the air transport in Europe and also to optimize the capacity of the air space and to minimize the delays.