If the FPCP goes at the window, going with it will be big savings to the airlines.
The Flight Plan Conflict Probe (FPCP) has been designed to unlock the User Preferred Routing (UPR) efficiencies for the Upper Air Space (UAS) sectors. It was the jewel in the crown. Above FL280 in huge tracts of Oceanic and Continental airspace, it would have allowed the airlines Free Flight to plan the most efficient routing.
I haven't heard that it is dead, PC (an ASA manager) promised the airlines at Waypoint 2008 that it would be implemented by the middle of next year.
The mantra spouted by the bureaucrats at the conference was that ASA were going to stop over-promising and under-delivering.
Further to lodowns' post, its the old snout in the trough syndrome, ASA is a huge money spinner, @$677 million last year at $106 million profit. This year will be even bigger. Charges fronm ATC and RFF generated around 90% of the income.
http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/...report0607.pdf
In this report we see, in Canberra, 13 executives, 140 Senior managers, and 191 clerical staff, 88 technical professional. With adds on there are 497 at the end of 2006/7 roaming the halls of BS castle.
From the report we have in total 283 senior managers and 13 executives.
In Caroline Flemings speech to Waypoint 2008 , after the creation of the ATS Line Managers (ALMs), they have delivered the Leaders Leading course to 470 managers.
Controller numbers are stated at 983, but this counts the new level of managers as ATC. Controllers talking to aircraft are actually somewhere around the 750-760 mark. The report quotes 553 Firies, though I wouldn't know how many of them are available to pull you out of a burning aircraft.23 Flight Data Co-ordinators(FDCs), and 74 Flight Information Service Officers (Flightwatch).
Each year we have seen a shrinking of controller numbers, this means we must have fantastic managers, less people dealing with more aircraft. Don't let those managers go, they can do this forever. No they can't. But lets encourage and reward them for this.
Now the chooks are coming home to roost lets blame it on the people we have been shafting for years.