Air Traffic Control Issues

[Viridis]

I am not trying to be difficult, however having ATC people calling sick and disrupting planes is not acceptable.

If we reduce flight capacity for that it means we are surrendering to the power of ATC as the whole city.

We need a swift but safe solution to make sure there are enough replacement ATCs to fill in the gap.

That's all.

You’re kidding, right?

I am struggling to believe that you are being serious, rather just winding people up.

Professionals don’t just ‘go sick’ to annoy you.

I was passing through Melbourne domestic recently and chatting to one of the gate staff - her husband (an enroute Controller), was off sick …. exhausted. Literally. He was working lots of OT to cover gabs in the roster because of poor manpower planning. Do you really want him soldiering on and separating an aircraft you’re in from others? Don’t be ridiculous.

Australia has an exemplary safety record and I don’t want that tarnished by some short-term expediency.

The problem is systemic and like most things in this country at the moment can be traced back to management incompetence, self interest or indolence

 

[Quickstatus]

My reading suggests that the problem is not ATC taking sickies, nor is ATC holding the travelling public hostage.

Airservices Australia needs more ATC, but filling gaps by reducing standards is not wise.

The original question is interesting - should Airservices reduce airport capacity until the ATC roster is properly covered with minimal overtime?.

 

[clifford]

You’re kidding, right?

I am struggling to believe that you are being serious, rather just winding people up.

Professionals don’t just ‘go sick’ to annoy you.

I was passing through Melbourne domestic recently and chatting to one of the gate staff - her husband (an enroute Controller), was off sick …. exhausted. Literally. He was working lots of OT to cover gabs in the roster because of poor manpower planning. Do you really want him soldiering on and separating an aircraft you’re in from others? Don’t be ridiculous.

Australia has an exemplary safety record and I don’t want that tarnished by some short-term expediency.

The problem is systemic and like most things in this country at the moment can be traced back to management incompetence, self interest or indolence

As someone who has worked at the CAA in a senior position (though not in ATC), much of what has been said above is true, but the real issue is that the Govt has never funded the organisation fully to meet its objectives. The chickens are now coming home.... (well, they've been here for a little while, but pecking up the last of the crumbs).

As for hiring controllers for overseas, I think that if it were so simple, it might have been considered already. Perhaps anyone suggesting such panaceas might do a little more research (and dare I say, be a little less frivolous).

 

[nancypants]

I applied not long before Covid, got offered an interview but couldn’t make it. Didn’t actually fail the interview, just couldn’t take the day off work to attend. They operate a two strikes and you’re out policy in that if they then offer you a second interview and you can’t make that either you are banned from reapplying for life.

Maybe that is a reasonable policy, maybe it isn’t

(I didn’t bother asking for a second as work was being difficult and the lack of flexibility from Airservices combined with needing to travel from the NT and the need to avoid the blacklist made me not attempt to progress further)

 

[AuSammy]

Certain seems to hit SYD the most noticeably although I am aware of issues at BNE last year

 

[AuSammy]

Seems AFF not only has armchair Airline CEOs but also armchair ATC managers.

 

[kamchatsky]

My reading suggests that the problem is not ATC taking sickies, nor is ATC holding the travelling public hostage.

Airservices Australia needs more ATC, but filling gaps by reducing standards is not wise.

The original question is interesting - should Airservices reduce airport capacity until the ATC roster is properly covered with minimal overtime?.

Well, I didn't asked it exactly, but yes if the ATC capacity is reduced, I cannot see how SYD can still function if there are not enough ATCs. In the short term, they need to start cutting all those SYD-MEL/BNE flights which QF and VA padded them out anyway. May as well get them cancelled for the next few months?

Can some of the SYD flights moved to WSI instead, assuming the ATC capacity for WSI is not fully utilised yet?

If the standard of ATC qualification is not altered, is it possible to train a lot more ATCs longer term, especially now that WSI is up also? Or is it more of a regulatory framework where only X number of people are allowed to complete the ATC training per year?

Essentially, I am trying to determine where the bottleneck really is.

With AI sweeping a large number of sectors, surely there are plenty of young graduates looking away from their traditional fields. Maybe there are now far more smart cookies that can apply and become ATCs?