The class representatives within the ICT Foundation College (Level 2) had the opportunity to visit the Malta Air Traffic Service (MATS) in Luqa on Thursday 28th April 2016. Eight students out of nine has opted to participate in this initiative led by IT Basics lecturers, Ms Graziella Attard and Mr Joseph Hales together with Mr Kyle Beeston from MATS.
Malta Air Traffic Services Ltd (MATS) is the Air Navigation Service Provider for Malta. Despite the fact that MATS provide different range of services, its main aim is to ensure that the aircrafts flying in the Malta Flight Information Region (FIR) are also in line with the international civil aviation regulations.
During our visit it was highlighted by Mr Beeston that safety is crucial in such operations as it looks into coordinating movements of thousands of aircrafts. Whilst visiting the Operations room, the importance of keeping aircrafts within safe distances from each other was explained together with the air traffic. The latter, also includes the direction of aircrafts in case of bad weather whilst ensuring a smooth journey with minimal delays.
The students also visited the Control tower; the team coordinator explained that their main duty is to look into the take-off and landing from airports. Mr Beeston emphasised on the importance of team work within such sector as it helps in further efficiency, support and sharing of work load.
The Technical section was also visited and the students looked into the non-cooperative surveillance system composed of cameras around the airfield and other different I.T. equipment. Some of this equipment is industry specific whilst the rest is generic to all industries such as servers, switches and so on. As one could see, the I.T. sector has different job opportunities yet despite the theory and skill one needs also to have motivation and right attitude for work.