By ATC Director Kelvin J. Vercoe 

As you should know from previous articles, last year NZALPA, and more specifically the ATC Council, became a founding member at the launch of the Global ATC Alliance (GATCA) at the World Air Traffic Management (ATM) Congress in Madrid.

For many years we have, and continue to, represent at all levels in International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations (IFATCA), and now we do the same with the Alliance.  

One thing that became apparent while attending these meetings was that the Air Traffic Services group within NZALPA needed an identity, as quite obviously we are not ‘Air Line Pilots’.  

With that in mind, and with the support of the Board of Management, we have designed a new logo that identifies our controllers and flight service members working in air traffic control.  

With the World ATM Congress held in Madrid, from 12-14 March this year, we chose this time to reveal our new logo. It was very well received by our international colleagues and others who were interested in its development. You may see our ATC Council members wearing shirts with the new logo soon, and in future there will be an option to obtain one for yourselves.  

Nothing changes in terms of our NZALPA memberships, we are still very much part of the family. We have created the new identity solely to be able to identify and be identified in the profession we work in, both domestically and internationally.  

Whilst on the topic of the World ATM Congress, I had the good fortune to attend this year, along with Jeremy Thompson, to support and promote the Alliance at our booth.  

The United States National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) generously fund the considerable cost of purchase and setup of the stand, and the other Alliance partners contribute the people to man it.  The booth was very well attended. 

Interactions with many of the ATM industry’s biggest developers and influencers (Thales, Frequentis, NavCan, Leidos, Aireon, Sennheiser etc) showed they support our initiative and are very keen to directly engage with us as the global representatives of around 20,000 of the ATM system’s end users who will potentially use their equipment and technology. 

This year all six of the member labour unions’ leaders were able to attend, so we held two public forum panels for congress attendees. 

The first panel included all the leaders and sought to inform those present as to what the Alliance is about and what we aim to achieve by having such an alliance.  

The second was about working together with both our air navigation service providers and the ATM industry. They were both well attended.  

Whilst at the Congress I visited the Airways NZ stand. I understand they were promoting AirShare (the unmanned aerial vehicle and drone hub), training, and Aeropath (the aeronautical information management and navigation services provider).  

Graeme Sumner, Tim Boyle, Trent Fulcher, Sharon Cook and many other Airways staff were there.  We gave an open invitation to visit our stand and meet our Alliance and international labour union representatives; unfortunately I never saw any of them while I was manning the booth.  

I was also fortunate to have a brief discussion about new technologies and other things with the new Chair of the Airways Board, Denise Church. We have committed to another meeting back here in New Zealand to introduce some key representatives of NZALPA. I anticipate talking about staffing and culture at Airways from our point of view.