Over 30 Air Navigation Service Providers gather at the FTECampus.

Last week FTEJerez hosted the FEAST User Group Annual Meeting (FUG 2017) at its aviation campus in Jerez. The First European Air Traffic Controller Selection Test (FEAST) is a tool developed by Eurocontrol that helps Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP’s) to identify suitable candidates for the job of an air traffic controller.

Once a year, the users of this tool hold an annual meeting hosted by one of the FUG members and in this occasion FTEJerez has had the pleasure of being selected to organise and host FUG 2017.

As a result, during 3 days, FTEJerez welcomed on campus over 50 representatives from 30 different organisations such as NATS, SENASA, Eurocontrol, the German Airforce and the Royal Danish Airforce amongst many others. Delegates attended a number of seminars, presentations and workshops to discuss the latest developments of the FEAST system and new industry trends.

During the meeting’s inauguration, Marc Damitz, FEAST Service Manager, Eurocontrol, highlighted the increase of the demand for qualified ATC’s in Europe. Oscar Sordo, FTEJerez CEO, added that ‘in Spain alone, air traffic will grow 20% by the year 2020. Due to this, national ANSP’s such as ENAIRE in Spain are launching public job offers. Passing the FEAST test is one of the requirements to be eligible for opportunities such as these’.

Following the liberalisation of ATC towers and the training of air traffic controllers in Spain, FTEJerez became the first training institution to be certified to conduct ATC training in Spain and the first private basic training provider approved by Eurocontrol to apply FEAST selection testing. Today, FTEJerez has established itself as a partner of choice for leading ASNP’s whilst offering its ATC cadets some of the best job prospects in the industry.