Originally Posted by
AlanM
Oh, and to provide you with a service needs some form of payment.
There is a remarkable consistency between controllers who work controlled airspace and have a view of 'you don't pay you don't get' and controllers who have to provide a service OCAS (i.e Bristol last year) who seems to seek much more communication with people in the open FIR.
I suspect this reflects a fundamental management attitude of the ATC business that airlines are their owners and pay their bills therefore airlines get the service and we (ATC management) will cut staff to all other areas to maximise profits - (which are doing very nicely in pre-IPO NATS). This then seems to be communicated both formally and informally to the ATCOs - who in my experience generally trying to do a good job for everyone within the rules and resources they have been given.
I also suspect this management attitude is very much in the background when application for additional CAS is being made - 'the Class D zone won't really effect VFR traffic as they will just call up and get a zone transfer and by able to continue to fly just as they do now in our area - trust me'. I also suspect this attitude wasn't part of the deal Ministers were told they had done on privatising ATC - probably the only case of privatising a monopoly provider where the monopoly is defined in statute.