Our history

The first civilian air traffic controllers had a background as airline pilots. On July 1, 1939 were all civilian air traffic and gathered in an organization, a unit of the Royal Institute of Civil Engineering Board's rail and air transport agency. The staff in the air traffic amounted then to 12 people.

The first military air traffic controllers, who then called dispatchers, first employed at the squadrons in 1942. They had previously been pilots.

Some milestones

  • Tedde Andersson's first air traffic controller in the early 1930s.
  • Air traffic control was nationalized in 1939.
  • The Air Force began hiring air traffic controllers 1942.
  • The state-owned enterprise CAA established in 1947.
  • New air traffic control system, ATCAS, 1979 (Stockholm), and 1983 (Malmo).
  • Major air space changes in 1974 and 1998.
  • Swedish ATS Academy (SATSA) started in 1974.
  • The integration of civil and military air traffic in 1978.
  • New air traffic control system, Eurocat 2000E, 2005.
  • Swedish-Danish company NUAC established in 2009
  • Split between airports and air navigation service 1 April 2010 - ANS conducted in enterprise LFV, and state-owned airports in the company Swedavia.
  • NUAC takes over air traffic control at the control centers in Stockholm, Malmö and Copenhagen, 2012.
  • Transport Agency provide LFV operating authorization for remote air traffic at Örnsköldsvik airport, 2014.
  • Örnskoldsvik Airport becomes the first in the world with air traffic remotely, from the control center in Sundsvall, 2015.
  • In 2016 LFV and Saab establish the company SDATS, Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions, to develop, sell and operate remote tower services, RTS.
  • 2017 70 years since LFV was establised. The number of movements in Swedish airspace this year is 762 000.
  • LFV, Air Navigation Services of Sweden, and the airport company Swedavia, sign an agreement that establishes air traffic service (ATS) from a remote position at four Swedavia airports. Concerned airports are Kiruna Airport, Umeå Airport, Åre Östersund Airport and Malmö Airport.
  • In 2017 Sundsvall Timrå Airport becomes the country’s second airport to have remote air traffic control.
  • In 2019 Linköping Saab Airport and Scandinavian Mountains Airport become the third and fourth airport with remote air traffic control.
  • RTC Stockholm is commissioned in 2019.
  • NUAC ceases and the en route operations are back in LFV in 2019.
  • In 2020 the Coronapandemi affects the entire aviation industry. The number of movements in Swedish airspace drops with 57 per cent compared to 2019.
  • LFV commissions the new remote tower centre, RTC Stockholm, for remote air-traffic control in 2021. The first airport to be connected to the centre was Kiruna Airport.