Virgin Australia confirmed the airline had experienced disruption on some services to Ballina due to workforce issues at Airservices Australia.
In response, Virgin undertook risk assessments before going ahead with flights to ensure the airspace was completely safe.
I'd love to see a copy of these risk assessments. After all, the SFIS
didn't help when a VA 737 had a 'separation occurrence' with a C208. So even the most optimistic of risk assessors couldn't say that BNA is completely safe for RPT ops, let alone when there is no controller.
Not to mention the SFIS controller is in Brisbane! It's not like it is a CAGRO who is on-field by themself and might go to the dunny or off sick, I'd hope that if a SFIS controller in BN Centre can't man their post there is someone else there that can...evidently not.