Civil Air, the union which represents the professional and technical interests of Australian Air Traffic Controllers has come out in support of recent calls for the retention of a standalone Flightwatch service.
“Airservices Australia’s proposal to transfer the Flightwatch responsibilities to Air Traffic Control adds pressure to already extremely busy and staff critical Air Traffic Control positions” President Michael Haines said today.
“Airservices statement of the benefits provided is misleading. Flightwatch is categorised as the lowest priority of Air Traffic Control duties. In times of bad weather, when the service is most relevant, controller workload will almost certainly preclude Air Traffic Control provision of Flightwatch information.” Mr Haines said.
He added “For an organisation which provided the Federal government with a record dividend of $56 million dollars last year, the removal of the service is unjustified on both safety and financial grounds.”
Civil Air calls on the Minister for Transport, Mr Mark Vaile, to direct Airservices to retain the independent Flightwatch service for the safety and benefit of Australia’s air travelling public.
13 November 2007