Originally Posted by
Avalon
Here's my tuppence worth; -
I've recently joined NATS and it quickly became apparent to me there were some detrimental divisions in the company. One is Area v Airports
They're divided in many respects because the regulator requires it. No cross subsidies etc.
My conclusion is that the ATSA role is changing rapidly, basically being drastically de-skilled by the advance of technology,
I disagree. For example the introduction of iFACTS will relieve the ATSAs of the dull, boring and mundane task of putting paper strips into holders and placing them in front of the ATCO (a good use of technology IMHO). Instead ATSAs will have roles which will be demanding of their cognitive skills. Quite probably fewer ATSAs but in more demanding roles.
You should also note that as far as possible office jobs which were previously done by ATCO grades are now being done by ATSA grades (ATC (T&S)).
I have no doubt that ATCOs will be called Voice Monkeys by Pilots in due course because most of the decision making will be taken away from them and be replaced by airborne and ground based systems.
And I have no doubt, given the vast complexity of that type of automated system, that the human will NEVER be removed from the decision making process. As an example iFACTS is the latest iteration in the NATS ATM systems and the ATCO is very much the person in the driving seat, the additional tools are quite rightly named SUPPORT tools.
BD