Other airports in Europe with traffic levels greather than Shannon and Cork combined seem to meet the European and ICAO safety standards but do not need Air/Ground open at all times.
How many staff would be available to cover breaks and sickness etc if Cork and Shannon operated combined Air and Ground every day. Would overtime still be required?
The IAA made a couple of commercial decisions in the last few years that have altered the way that Shannon Tower operates.
They removed the assistant from the Tower, and made the requirement 2 ATCOs H24. Their requirement!
They also made ATCOs lose their tower ratings by refusing to train them in new procedures ( this meant less recurrent training costs ), thus squeezing the number of tower ratings to the minimum.
Dont think that in Shannon its just a lack of staff in the tower, its everywhere. It is possible to have a full staff complement on in ATC on any given day, but that does not mean that there is a full complement of ratings for all positions. The tower does not operate on a stand alone roster. Controllers that work in the ACC are rotated through the tower to man the positions.
This does not arise in cork, as it is not 2 ATCOs H24 in their tower
Of course a 1 ATCO tower would require less people to run, but that extra person would be required elsewhere.
The actual number of ATCOs in Shannon is about 140, however, the actual number on the roster at any time is about 99. all of the rest are on projects,instructing,courses, sick leave, maternity etc, not to mention the lucky few that are able to take annual leave. Go figure!