I know staffing is a problem, as we all do, but I’m still struggling to work out why this incident in particular is evidence of a lack of ANSP competence or cutting costs.
I’m sure Gatwick have run with 3 on nights for many years. Two ATCOs calling in sick the morning of their first night shift is going to cause major problems to any unit. In many cases it would have been worse 20 years ago as overtime/AVAAs etc were not the done thing.
Anybody tried getting overtime/AAVAs in for nights? ScRATCOH rules out 80% of the workforce already, and possibly 95% if it’s not on the ‘right’ night. That leaves those on leave before or after, many of whom will be away on holiday.
When was the last unit to roster an official ‘call in’ contingency shift? Are we really saying we have to go back to that? Do we really think airports would stomach that against the 10000 to 1, or maybe 100000 to 1 chance of having to close overnight?