Before I go and celebrate the festive season, I would like to put forward my suggestion for the New Year. To view my suggestion, you have to forget what might have been in the past and cleanse yourself of any feelings of fundamentalism. My vision is based on safety requirements, the future needs, common sense and commercial realities. Here goes:
- The reality is that we have to provide Air Traffic Services (of one kind or another) over the whole of the Australian territory
- Another reality is that ASA has not been able to, and in all likelihood, will have future problems, providing enough ATCs to provide those services.
- Why are ASA having trouble filling the ATC places?
- Worldwide shortage of Controllers
- Reducing number of applicants in Australia
- Extremely complicated and exhaustive selection process
- Extremely high standards required of applicants
- Fairly high attrition rate during training
- Lack of morale and job satisfaction
- More attractive salaries elsewhere
- This brings me to the logical question. Are fully trained Controllers required to provide ALL those services?
- What if a level of Controller, requiring a lesser entry standard and a lesser training standard could be employed to provide some specific services? What would be the benefits?
- Opens up a larger pool of prospective applicants
- More applicants would meet the entry requirements
- More applicants would survive the selection process
- A shorter training course … on the roster quicker
- Lower payroll cost to ASA … and therefore, the Industry
- Higher morale for existing Controllers who could be released from less satisfying duties
- Existing Controllers would loose the distraction of providing Flightwatch services
- What duties would these (lets call them) FIA Controllers do?
- Provide DTI in Class G Sectors
- Provide Flightwatch services
- Provide remote Aerodrome Traffic Information Services e.g. Ballina
- Possibly provide on-site Aerodrome Traffic Information Tower Services e.g. Karratha or Avalon … a la United Kingdom
- What is the precedent for this? Airservices’ proposal for Flight Data people to provide clearances. Obviously Airservices already considers that fully trained Controllers aren’t required for all services
- Would the FIA Controllers progress to be Separation Controllers? Possibly, after a bridging course, however, as they would be recruited for their specific skills and personality type … they may not easily translate to separation.
Some Christmas food for thought ... cheers
