Germany


Excerpt from company portrait
The Control Centre division offers an additional service to pilots flying in German airspace under visual flight rules: flight information service (FIS). The pilot receives all information required for the flight, such as air pressure and weather conditions on the route, and whether or where the flight may encounter crossing traffic. Information about the activation times of restricted areas and the current weather conditions at the destination airport are also provided. Qualified DFS staff provide this service to pilots, who can communicate via a nation-wide radio network set up by the Control Centre division.

Flight information in Germany today

 

   

 

• FIS specialists work a sector on their own. Unlike air traffic controllers, they do not have a coordinator to assist them.
• DFS flight information has 250,000 radio contacts per year.
• FIS is available in German and English.
• FIS will be centralised in Langen in 2018.
• A new control room is being set up just for FIS.
• Thirty-four full-time FIS specialists will be employed there.

Training to become a FIS specialist
• At the moment, there is no dedicated training to become a FIS specialist.
• Instead, flight data assistants receive additional training to become a FIS specialist.
• Training takes three months at the DFS Academy.
• This is followed by a phase in which the licences for each sector must be acquired.
• DFS plans to offer direct entry to such positions when the service is centralised.

Equipment