Pau Marí: "The integrated GOI is one of the most difficult sectors in Barcelona"

Pau Marí is an air traffic controller and works in Gavà, in one of the five control centres in Spain where the planes that pass through the entire Spanish sovereignty area are managed.

Tell me something I don't know.

— Integrated GOI.

Indeed, I don't know him.

— It is one of our sectors. We have the sky divided into sectors – High, Low and Integrated GOI – and each day you have to control one.

And how about the integrated GOI?

— One of the most difficult in Barcelona, ​​​​because you have everything that is in the air from the Balearic Islands –Mallorca and Ibiza– that goes to the north of Europe. There are many planes.

They control the highways of heaven.

— You could say it like this. Planes have a route and we divert them when necessary.

How is traffic organized?

— Airspace is defined by volumes, and each of these volumes has a defined capacity: a number of aircraft and movements per hour. And each of these volumes is controlled by a controller.

And is it true that everything is managed from a computer in Brussels?

— Yes, because all companies send their flight plan, their route, and what that computer does is monitor that there are no overloads.

When there are delays, is it this computer's fault?

— Often, yes, because they detect that there are too many flights, or because there is a forecast of storms and fewer flights are allowed to pass. And in Europe it has been decided that delays are best dealt with with the plane on the ground.

Isn't that how it's done everywhere?

— In the United States, for example, it is different. They do not have any system of flow control. If there is a congestion at an airport, you have to go around in circles and wait to be able to land. Or go to an alternative airport.

How long can a plane keep circling?

— They usually carry enough fuel to be able to wait for 20 minutes at the destination airport and then to reach the alternate airport if they cannot land.

I always imagine a controller in the control tower.

— Most of us are not there, but in the control centers. There are three types of controllers.

What does each one do?

— Those in the tower carry out the entire departure. Those in approach take control mid-takeoff or landing, and finally the route controllers take charge of those already in flight.

What is the most complicated thing?

— The approach is a moment when the planes are very close together, very close to the ground, and you have to line them up. You have to be careful.

And the worst thing that can happen when they are flying?

— One may DayBut it is rare. We have problems especially during storms, because the planes cannot fly their planned route, and that is when they start asking for detours. And when 15 or 20 planes ask for it at the same time, it is crazy.

There must be some really stressful moments.

— I remember one afternoon at El Prat airport when there was a very strange weather situation, with crosswinds that prevented planes from entering or leaving. They began to accumulate in the air; they asked to land, to go to another airport, but there was no room to go anywhere. It was the worst afternoon as a controller.

How much distance is there between planes?

— 300 meters vertically and 8 kilometers horizontally. If there is severe turbulence, you separate them further.

When I think of controllers, the strike comes to mind.

— Those were very difficult years. A serious wound was opened because we were pointed out as guilty. But, luckily, justice acquitted the controllers.

There was a lot of talk about what he earned.

— Yes, it's all in the BOE.

I don't remember how much it was... Maybe around 140 thousand annually on average?

— Approximately, but we must not forget that we have a very big responsibility. And right now there are places where they charge much less because private companies have come in.

Towers that control private companies?

— Yes, these are cases that began to occur around 2010, coinciding with the controversy over the strike. The conditions for being a controller were also changed.

Change how?

— Today there is a phase where you have to pay for the training, and it costs between 60 and 70 thousand euros.

What is the most important thing to be a good controller?

— Have good stress management.