The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) celebrated the international day for air traffic controllers on Thursday.
It held celebrations at both Riyadh and Jeddah air traffic centers as well at the Saudi Aviation Academy. 
Minister of Transport Suliman Alhamdan, who is also the chairman of GACA, expressed his thanks and appreciation to the air traffic control centers’ staff, stressing that this was the fruit of our investment in the human factors that are the real wealth of the nation. 
He said the controllers went through rigorous training sessions and education regiments that GACA provided for them, whether at the Saudi Aviation Academy or through scholarship programs abroad.
He added that GACA enabled those young controllers to comprehend all of the latest technological advances in this field. 
In a message sent to all the air traffic control staff, he said: “We celebrate this occasion with pride as our Saudization in this sector has reached 100 percent. Despite the increase of air traffic that the Kingdom’s airport and airspace is witnessing, we were able to employ a large number of Saudi air traffic controllers to keep up with this constant growth and ensure the safety and security of the Kingdom’s airspace.”
Assistant to GACA President for Communications and Marketing Bassem Alsalloum pointed out that GACA takes pride in joining the world in celebrating the international day for air traffic controllers. 
Saleh Alghamdi, CEO of Air Navigation Service Company, explained that air navigational sector is witnessing the start of a new way of thinking where the old way of doing business has been replaced to ensure advanced performance to raise the operational efficiency and quality of services and costs, and toward augmenting revenue and make air navigational services profitable and sophisticated.

Source: Arab News