The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and EUROCONTROL jointly organised an Air Traffic Controller Competency‑based Training and Assessment (CBTA) workshop for National Competent Authorities (NCAs) on 27‑28 October 2026 at EUROCONTROL’s Aviation Learning Centre.
The workshop aimed to support NCAs in understanding the amendment to Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/340 on ATCO licensing, which introduces CBTA requirements for initial training, operational air traffic services units and ATCO training organisations from 1 January 2029.
Participants discussed the challenges and opportunities of regulatory oversight of this change and benefited from perspective‑sharing by CANSO, the GATE Training Organisation, the EUROCONTROL Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC), the Belgian Supervisory Authority and the Irish Aviation Authority.
Key conclusions highlighted that implementing CBTA represents the most significant change to ATCO training since the common European rules were established and is likely to deliver systemic network‑level benefits; early exchanges between training organisations and NCAs are necessary; NCAs play a crucial role in managing resources and approval schedules; exploiting the flexibility of CBTA is key to efficiency gains; and a more structured dialogue across NCAs is needed for harmonised implementation.
EASA and EUROCONTROL declared readiness to accompany NCA initiatives, support structured dialogue, foster dedicated discussions over the next two years in stakeholder forums, develop a generic online introductory course for inspectors, advance the Data4Training initiative, and consider further tools for sharing best practices and a specific inspector training course. Both organisations agreed to integrate these conclusions into parallel European network‑level activities addressing the ATCO workforce challenge and ensuring safe, efficient and resilient air traffic services amid growing traffic demand.