On the subject of a
Toothless CASA, here's an extract from Ben Sandiland's
latest entry on the Plane Talking blog...
Other examples of questionable conduct at CASA include its insistence that it is perfectly safe for jet airliners to self separate on the major trunk routes when AirServices Australia can’t find enough air traffic controllers to provide a service which is a legislated obligation in this country and throughout the first, second and much of the third world as well. (Short of imprisoning the diminished ranks of controllers inside the control centres the supremely well managed AirServices Australia enterprise won’t have enough qualified staff to provide full services for years to come.)
It is dangerously foolish for CASA to promote self separation between airlines as safe when it doesn’t provide complete certainty as to where all of the aircraft close to each other actually are. It is ridiculous for the government to tolerate such a situation. Don’t believe the media on this. Believe the chief pilots and chief executive officers of the main Australian and foreign airlines trying to efficiently use Australian air space and save their a*ses in advance of any sudden requirement for truck loads of body bags.
Way forward? Symbolic removal of the festering rot from the top is most certainly the first step, but don't be deluded into thinking a fresh selection of ex-ATCs will garner instant loyalty. The change to be made now is cultural. Airservices must no longer maintain structure as a profit-focussed corporation. For too long strategic planning has been taken with this as the number 1 priority, given the cost cutting bonus driven management culture. Bonuses must go. Executive salary must be fixed as a multiple of non-executive salaries. That is, a public service-style graded system from the bottom to the top.
The concept of a Canberra head office is anachronistic and too physically removed from the "customers". The AWB must move to a business park in a major capital city: lock, stock and barrel.
These fundamental, highly symbolic, but very functional changes can then be presented under a new agency name, as the tarnished
Airservices Australia gets thrown into the shredder.