ATSEP

IFATSEA Eurogroup

we are ATSEP

Profession

Employed by Air Navigation Service Providers, ATSEPs are mainly engineers, technicians, hardware and software specialists who are responsible for the specification, procurement, installation, integration, calibration, maintenance, safety assurance and monitoring of these systems. The equipment ranges from discrete specialist electronic systems to Commercial-Off-The-Shelf computer hardware running specialist software designed and maintained to provide a high critical safety-of-life service to aircraft. The systems provide Communication and Navigation services for aircraft, Surveillance (e.g. Radar), Flight Data Processing and supporting tools for Air Traffic Controllers.

The principal duties of the ATSEP are (as defined in ICAO Training manual doc 7192 E2):

 Performing maintenance on CNS/ATM system/equipment which include:

  • Calibrating flight and ground radio navigation aids.
  • Certification of CNS/ATM system/equipment.
  • Modification of operational CNS/ATM equipment.
  • Corrective maintenance.
  • Preventive maintenance.
  • Performing installation of CNS/ATM system/equipment.
  • Management, monitoring and control of operational CNS/ATM system/equipment.
  • Developing, reviewing, and modifying CNS/ATM system/Equipment, and/or maintenance procedures and standards.

But also in frequency management, project development and Flight Inspection ATSEP have their role.

A major role for ATSEP is the System Monitoring and Control (SMC) of the CNS/ATM infrastructure and constituents.

ATSEP acronym

ATSEP is recognized by ILO – International Labour Office– under the International Standard Classification of Occupation ILO Paragraph: 3145 AIR TRAFFIC SAFETY TECHNICIANS

Air traffic safety electronics personnel (ATSEP) is an international term for the technical staff involved with the creation and support of the ground-based electronic hardware and software systems used to support air navigation and Air Traffic Management.

In 2017, the term ATSEP is defined by the CIR (EU) 2017/373 of 1 March 2017 (laying down common requirements for providers of air traffic management/air navigation services and other air traffic management network functions and their oversight) 

ATSEP is defined as:

(20)  ‘air traffic safety electronics personnel(ATSEP)’ means any authorized personnel who are competent to operate, maintain, release from, and return into operations equipment of the functional system;

Whereas:

(56) ‘functional system’ means a combination of procedures, human resources and equipment, including hardware and software, organized to perform a function within the context of ATM/ANS and other ATM network functions;