Federal Agency for Air Traffic Control

The Federal Agency for Air Traffic Control was from 1953 to 1992 a direct federal institution under public law of the Federal Republic of Germany with the task of air traffic control of civil air traffic in Germany.

history

The history of air traffic control is integrated into the development of the aircraft as a means of mass transport, which began in Germany at the beginning of the 1950s.

From 1945 onwards, airspace control was mainly carried out by the air traffic control services of the Western Allies . The Allied Air Office , however, in Wiesbaden signaled in 1951 to try to put the air traffic control in German hands.

On July 7, 1953, Federal Transport Minister Hans-Christoph Seebohm entrusted the newly founded Federal Agency for Air Traffic Control (BFS) in Frankfurt am Main with the implementation of civil air traffic control services.

In 1959, the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Federal Ministry of Defense formalized the division of civil-military tasks in a departmental agreement. The services at the military airfields and the associated local traffic areas remained partly in the hands of the Allies, partly they were taken over by the newly established Bundeswehr .

In 1965, the BFS took over the tasks previously performed by the Bundeswehr in all of southern German airspace, with the exception of the air bases themselves. This restructuring was called the "Munich Model".

With German reunification in 1990, the BFS took over air traffic control in the airspace of the former GDR from Interflug and from the main department XIX (transport) of the Ministry for State Security (MfS).

In 1992 the headquarters of the BFS moved from Frankfurt to a considerably larger building in Offenbach am Main .

On October 16, 1992, it was privatized and founded as Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS), but still belongs 100 percent to the federal government. On January 1, 1993, DFS took over control of air traffic.