HungaroControl and Wizz Air Sign Cooperation Agreement
On 14 December 2015, Tamás Zsolnay, Director of Development and External Relations, and Gyula Hangyál, ATM Director of HungaroControl Magyar Légiforgalmi Szolgálat Zrt. signed a cooperation agreement together with Diederik Pen, Chief Operations Officer of Wizz Air Hungary Kft. The agreement defines the frameworks of the cooperation covering five areas, including flight safety, operations and operations planning, research and development, education and training, as well as service quality and customer satisfaction.
The Hungarian air navigation service provider and the airline company with Hungarian ownership participated in many joint projects over the past few years. The recently signed document helped elevate the cooperation to a strategic level, while specifying the areas particularly important regarding the day-to-day operations and service development strategies of both companies.
One of the key elements of the agreement is flight safety. The cooperation in this field provides the opportunity for the relevant employees of both companies – i.e. pilots and air traffic controllers – to participate in the trainings organised by the other party, as well as to collaboratively address and investigate flight safety related announcements.
Within the framework of the cooperation regarding operations and operational planning, the Budapest-based pilots of Wizz Air have the opportunity to visit the operations room, the air traffic control tower, and the emergency control centre (opening in the first quarter of 2016). Additionally, HungaroControl takes part in the fuel efficiency projects of Wizz Air by providing data and consultations of experts. Wizz Air provides the expertise as an airline company for HungaroControl before the introduction of new concepts, and also during procedure planning.
During their joint research and development projects, the companies have already tested CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link Communication - data communication between the pilots and air traffic controllers) and CDM (Collaborative Decision Making - constant cooperation between airline companies, air navigation organisations, suppliers of ground-handling services, airports, and EUROCONTROL's Central Flow Management Unit), and they continue their cooperation regarding the rTWR (Remote Tower - remote tower-control) demonstration project within the framework of the SESAR program(Single European Sky ATM Research) financed by the European Union.
Within the frameworks of the education and training program, Wizz Air organises cockpit flights and visits to the A320 simulator for air traffic controllers, while HungaroControl provides opportunities for Budapest-based pilots to take part in simulations organised by the company, and on the mandatory theoretical and simulation trainings of air traffic controllers.
The constant improvement of service quality and customer satisfaction is equally important for both parties, so the collaboration in these fields will continue in the future as well: the pilots and the experts of Wizz Air take part in conducting periodic surveys about customer satisfaction (organised by HungaroControl), and participate in airline workshops and other consultations regarding service quality.
The efficiency of the cooperation will be annually reviewed by the two companies, who will also consult about the possible involvement of new areas.