NEWS FLASH
Croatia has introduced airspace restrictions affecting flights heading to Greece from Switzerland and Italy. The move comes as part of efforts to reduce air traffic congestion in Croatian airspace during the busy 2025 summer season. Flights from most airports in Switzerland and Italy bound for Greece will not be allowed to overfly Croatian airspace for half of the day throughout the entire summer period. These limitations are outlined in the latest Route Availability Documents (RADs) and represent a shift from past practices. While Croatia has long issued slot regulations during peak summer weekends due to reduced air traffic control capacity, these were previously temporary and allowed operators the possibility of rerouting. Now, rerouting is mandatory. For airlines, this means longer flight times and higher operating costs. A typical reroute from Switzerland to Greece is expected to add eight to fifteen minutes of flight time and increase costs per flight.
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| Italy/Switzerland rerouting to Greece |
A farce
ReplyDeleteOnly if you don't understand how these things work.
DeleteMhmm... and how does it work?
Delete'during peak summer weekends due to reduced air traffic control capacity'
From what I understand issue here is lack of staffing. Same reason why the Hungarian ATC threatened to go on a strike last summer. So maybe more people need to be hired and trained instead of just closing thier airspace.
@Nemjee10:37
DeleteCroatia has unemployment of just over 4%, this is bound to go down to 3% as summer season starts, tell me where you going to get extra staff from ??? You need to train ATC staff and it takes at least 1-2 years of extensive training and certification for that staff to be trained.
Croatia is in the EU so they can get them from anywhere. Also there are high school graduates who might be interested in this career. Seems like they don't care to fix this issue.
DeleteThanks Croatia. This means less money for Slovenian ATC, too.
DeleteSlovenian ACTs seem to be understaffed as well. I keep getting ads for open positions from Slovenia Control there
Delete@nemjee genuine question, what will they do with the extra supply of ATC controllers during off-season when they're not needed? It's not like the job can be a seasonal one
Delete@11:46 It's not a "not enough people" issue, it's a "not paid well enough for the stress" issue.
DeleteIndeed Slovenia is going to lose a lot of money. But Serbian ATC will be the winner.
DeleteThey will do what other ATC do around the world, send their employees on holidays, make them work less etc.
DeleteIt's the same with airlines and what they do with excess capacity in winter which they used in summer.
The problem of busy skies is not new. So whats going wrong in HR?
DeleteMismanagement and corruption
Delete@Nemjee Croatia is in the EU but its wages are still in the Balkans or slightly higher. Who in their right mind would come to work at such a stressful position for half the salary they are getting in western Europe.
DeleteThe only way to plug those gaps urgently would be to poach ATCs from Serbia, Bosnia...etc. but that's not as easy as taking away your low skilled workforce.
A pity. It was beautiful to fly over the spectacular Croatian coast on the way to Greece
ReplyDeleteAnd it will still be, half a day every day.
DeleteCongrats to SMATSA for being able to handle this extra traffic. This also includes charters from Switzerland to the Aegean Sea islands, Rhodes, Crete etc.
ReplyDeleteWhy only Switzerland? Will they also restrict US carriers flying to Greece?
ReplyDeletethey usually fly over Bosnia or Italy.
DeleteCan't just block every single country. It's probable that Greece-Switzerland is very dense and that the rerouting is less invasive than for, say, Germany-Greece
DeleteBut why Greece?
ReplyDeleteProbably because Greece creates the most traffic over the summer period and it was the most obvious pick for them
DeleteMost traffic is created to Turkey, Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, with tons of turkish and european flights heading down there..How come thstis not a problem?
DeleteBecause thse flights do not overfly Croatia. They go over Hungary then Serbia or Romania and then to Turkey. These countries have enough ATC controllers so it's not a problem like in Croatia.
Deletegirl, so confusing
ReplyDeleteMore money for Serbia and others.
ReplyDeleteFor Serbia this doesn't change anything, as these flights would've been flying over its territory after leaving the Croatian airspace anyhow.
DeleteA bit more money for Hungary - yes.
They are going to lose serious overfly fees from airlines because of this. Wouldn't be better long-term to have enough staff to handle the traffic demand?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, that is a lot of €€€ they are missing because of this.
DeleteWill Switzerland and Greece ban flights to Croatia?
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteWho covers the air traffic over the Adriatic? Italy? Bosnia?
ReplyDeleteBosnia
DeleteBosnia has big issues with its ATC as well.
Delete"Bosnia and Herzegovina faces risk of airport and airspace closure"
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/04/bosnia-and-herzegovina-faces-risk-of.html
Dumbest thing I've heard in a long time... these controllers wouldn't last 30 minutes in some of U.S.' busiest airspace (NYC, ATL, DCA, etc.)
ReplyDeleteCoffee breaks needed
DeleteThose flights to SKG will take at least 15 minutes longer. It's not good for the environment to pollute it with extra unnceccessary flying. Greece and Switzerland need to respond to Croatia, this is really not ok.
ReplyDeleteSo it's better to fly in understaffed and possibly dangerous airspace?
DeleteIt's better to be 15minutes longer on the ground waiting for your CTOT and your engines off, than flying 15minutes longer.
Delete