Does anyone else see the real irony here? No-one in places of power seems to actually give a rat's @rse that the NAS arrangements were causing Virgin sphincters to pucker every time they set off into the wild blue yonder wondering when the near miss was going to become "well - they nearly missed". The philosophical problem I have is that the roll-back isn't happening for the right reasons.
This is all about @rse-covering on a scale not seen since - since - well last week when Johnny back-flipped on Super for pollies. The Chairman of the Board of Airservices has resigned without a word from anyone as to why whilst the industry is in turmoil trying to avoid a mid-air and guessing what the spin-doctors are going to put up next week. Call me old-fashioned but was he getting out of the way and taking his golden handshake before the sh!t hits the fan?
The "enhancement" of the airspace that everyone's so glibly throwing about IS about rolling back. The result will probably be NAS dead in the water. I'm not personally upset at that prospect but am compis mentis enough to realise that a lot of people have invested a $hitload of dollars in trying to make it work and are going to be angry to have to spend more to get out of it. Meanwhile deafening silence from Dick Smith other than to lob a quick "the only reason we don't have a tower at Uluru is that controllers don't want to work there".
X-file-o-philes are no doubt beside themselves in orgiastic rapture at the benevolent "Voices of Reason" clearing things up for the rest of us but when is someone going to cop it on the chin for this god-almighty F@^%-up? Over 50 million AU$ before we start winding back. Although, on Dick's calculations it was going to save 70 mil so we're 20 mil in front. One third goes to the industry as discounts, one third to the government as dividend and the remainder to Airservices staff as a productivity bonus. Carry the 6 and divide by Dick's undy size, that means I've got $5714.28 (ish) before tax coming my way...
