Joachim Keck is ready to advise you as a consultant in air traffic control-related matters in accordance with the KECCON ATM service catalogue and after individual consultation. Joachim Keck is a proven expert in numerous air traffic control-related topics.
He joined the German Air Force in 1976 after obtaining his technical college entrance qualification. At the beginning of his career, he was trained as a flight data operator and acquired all local ratings at the Maastricht Centre / Lippe Radar.
After deciding in 1977 to stay in the Air Force and become an air traffic controller he was trained as an air traffic controller at the Air Force Technical School in Kaufbeuren in 1978. After successful completion and equipped with the student licenses TWR and APS he was transferred to the busiest airfield of the Air Force in Fürstenfeldbruck at the end of 1978, where he successfully acquired all tower controller and radar controller ratings by the end of 1980. Parallel to his professional training he received the officer graduation of the German Air Force.
In 1983 he acquired the ACS student license, which entitled him to take up training in the area and district control service. With this license he was transferred to Lippe Radar in Maastricht as requested, and in the subsequent on-site training he successfully passed all the upcoming proficiency tests. In the time that followed he was promoted to officer and further trained and deployed as an instructor and examiner.
At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s he was part of the political lobby work with the aim to convince members of the German parliament in Bonn of providing military and civil air traffic control from a single organization in future to be able to meet the challenges that were already emerging.
Ultimately, this work, which was carried out together with other lobbyists, led to the creation of the civil-military air navigation services cooperation and the military air traffic controllers finding a new home in DFS GmbH, which was newly founded in 1993 under private law. In 1993/1994, Joachim Keck was already looking for new challenges at DFS in Berlin, where DFS had to take over the airspace from the Allies and establish a new radar control centre.
Joachim Keck seized the opportunity and successfully applied for the position of supervisor of the new radar control centre in Berlin Tempelhof. In his new role, he again successfully passed all the credentialing exams, led his team and was instrumental as a manager in the creation of the new centre and the new airspace structures.
After only four years in Berlin, Joachim Keck was looking for new goals, which he found in the DFS South Branch. In 1997 he transferred to DFS in Munich and started training as a controller in the so-called alpine sectors. After only two years he again held all the necessary ratings for his operational unit.
In the course of his professional air navigation services career Joachim Keck has acquired a total of 45 ratings at four different locations in all areas, i.e. flight data processing, tower, approach, departure, lower and upper airspace, which is probably almost unique, at least in Europe with its strict regulations on the acquisition of licenses and ratings.
After some time as a controller at the southern branch Joachim Keck again applied for management positions, first in 2003 he was again selected as a supervisor, then in 2006 he took over the operational management of the alpine sectors and thus responsibility for safe and orderly flight operations in a very highly congested airspace with some international neighbors, with whom there were numerous negotiations on operational issues under his leadership. Under his responsibility he led operational managers / supervisors and more than 100 air traffic controllers for several years.
In addition to his operational tasks, he was responsible for numerous topics for the DFS South Branch, in particular the planning of staffing levels for operational staff, staff deployment planning, capacity planning, the training of trainee controllers, the simulation area, the topic of proficiency as well as the internal preparation and implementation of audits by the supervisory authorities. He was also involved in various collective bargaining negotiations for DFS.
In addition to his operational and management responsibilities Joachim Keck has been involved in or led numerous projects at DFS. From 2015 onwards he played a leading role in the project to take over military air navigation services training from the German Armed Forces by DFS as part of a third-party business of DFS at the Kaufbeuren site.
Due to his expertise the CEO of DFS entrusted him with the management of the new company to be established in Kaufbeuren. In 2016 Kaufbeuren ATM Training GmbH (KAT) was entered in the commercial register in Kempten with the Managing Director Joachim Keck.
The main objectives of this particularly challenging task, namely, among others were:
- the timely assumption of responsibility for military training on 01.01.2017
- the development of the company from two employees at that time to more than 80 employees at the point of taking over responsibility for the armed forces ATC training in 2017
- the establishment of customer satisfaction
- the achievement of economic goals
- the monitoring and requirements management of a construction project costing approx. 20 million €
- the establishment of the new company in the political arena
After some challenging and stressful years and the success in reaching all this objectives Joachim Keck handed over his position as Managing Director as planned at the end of April 2019 and retired from DFS in the age of 63.
After retirement Joachim Keck and his wife Birgitt keck founded a consulting company, the KECCON ATM. Joachim Keck offers the experience he has gained in the operational areas and in leadership and management positions to potential customers for instance to decision makers of politics, public and air navigation services organizations, unions, science organizations and other relevant customers.