I Don’t Know Why...

Ben Sandilands gets it when so many don’t.

”Some 16 months after airliners began to lose a reliable air traffic control system in Australia, the air safety regulator, CASA, has done nothing to enforce the rules about staffing levels.”

It all seems pretty simple.

AirServices doesn't have enough controllers to man the terminals, regardless of whether they are members of a union or not; it doesn't have a credible or functioning training program to create new controllers; and it has a work force that is quitting in significant numbers for better pay and conditions in Eire, Dubai, Hong Kong and Germany.

The article in Crikey is well worth reading.

Or as others have claimed, even if the controllers and AirServices agree to a new pay deal tomorrow, nothing will save the system from chronic staffing shortages for years to come because of past mismanagement of resources.

And yes, it does sound a lot like the situation in America.

Don Brown
January 15, 2009