Originally Posted by
ATC alert
Perhaps an entire management flush after World Cup will solve some of Doha's primary flaws.
Staff morale is beyond an all time low, most seem to be in near robotic mode. All focus now is simply to hopefully not get terminated until after the WC. Which based on the headless chicken approach to the QFIR seems almost inevitable. Nobody seems to have the slightest clue how to approach managing an FIR. Staff wise there are too many staff numbers currently to retain current staff and also hire en-route controllers. Drawing enroute controllers from the current numbers is also a bust as most are close to retirement age or have not practised their Acc rating in well over 5 years.
There is no money in the budget and increasing the budget long term is about as probable as flying pigs. Money just does not exist. Most are hoping after the SWC that Al Eshaq finally either retires or gets the boot for his pathetically substandard role as Director. However all of us have come to realise there are a hundred little Ahmed’s to replace him if that happens so pretty much status quo.
There is serious concern among the longer serving controllers here that training was not given enough focus and time to incoming staff. There seems to be among the majority of the newer arrivals the inability to understand speed control application as it would appear that even in medium to low traffic loadings final approach is regularly reaching the Saudi Arabia border. So much for reduced sep on final approach and the much talked about Independent Parallel Ops. Complaints from crew are weekly (sometimes daily) on freq.
As pointed out the money is well above average, however that goes only so far and when you realise that this joke of an operation is almost like the perfect storm for someone to lose their license in, you start to review certain values. Aside from the almost guaranteed salary/staff review after the World Cup, everyone is well aware operationally nothing will change irrespective of who is in charge and are looking elsewhere. Money is an attractant up to a point.