1. Is quarter of a million quid a year not enough to be an ATCO in Spain?
2. Without getting into the standard of service we get down there - are they worth twice what a UK/EU ATCO earns?
3. Ok you may have me on operational ATC matters - but if we cant get a direct why the restrictions on a cruise level between say 390 and FL450 - theres nobody to bother in the descent in the main between those levels and we'll come down early if you like.
4. How have we coped in the last 10 years with the operational problems you describe or is just coincidence that these problems are more apparent whilst Spanish ATC are fighting for Ts & Cs
Our destination is in the UK - regardless of what sector we end up in we always have to make certain levels at certain places which are far from optimal - not complaining about that - thats just life in the big city, but its important that we get a good level earlier in the flight to make economic sense
Im sorry but it waddles like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, its lays eggs like a duck then its a duck.
This is the result of work to rule by the Spanish, I fully appreciate the need for action you only have to read some of the posts on here to realise it but all you're/they're doing is increasing emmisions, burning fuel, inconveniencing passengers.
GO ON STRIKE - make people aware of your plight get instead of trying to cause death by a thousand paper cuts
I have read the entire thread and there is no point in fighting between ourselves. We are part of the same decaying business, aviation, infected by the virus of low cost. I will gladly answer your requests, no pilot harrasment of any kind, nor childish attitude. I have registered just to bring my point of view, as I see there is being some discussion here treating ourselves as ennemies, when the common ennemy is the employer, both pilot's and ATCo's, and the governments introducing the low cost and the low safety rates.
1. Quarter a million is a very good pay. I work in an ACC (not a small tower) and I hope I could gain that much, even before the decree. After february 5th, this amount is just a fairy tale (it was possible before for a few if they worked a lot, now it's just impossible).
2. I don't know the pay of UK controlers, and I would not compare to them, not because I feel less, but just because I don't know any of them so how could I judge... That said I feel respectful towards them, until they show me some evidence to change my mind. But I believe that we are payed less than UK controllers for the same amount of hours. If what you're comparing is the income (not the salary but the total income including huge overtimes) of a pre-decree spanish controller working more than 600 hours overtime (paid at 2.5 times the ordinary hour) to a UK controller working his basic shifts, it is impossible that it would ever ends the same. If you ask me, I could recognise that 600 hours a year are too much overtime, and that the prize of the hour was quite high. But to compare, you have to compare the same thing, and I don't think that our salary is any bigger than UK's ATCOs (though I could be wrong). Anyway, this situation is not possible anymore, overtime have been forbidden by direct orders from above, and now we are forced to work that huge amount of hours (that keepsbeing too much imho) at the prize of 0.8 times the ordinary hour. And it is not just a question of the prize. Having Sex is not the exact same thing as being raped, if you ask me. Even if there's penetration involved in both cases.
3. There is being severe overloads in Spanish skies these days. And by severe I don't mean "c'mon lazy boys let's work from time to time" but more "there are too many planes here around, this situation is absurd, I don't wanna be here, I want to cry". If you want, I can detail you some of these situations, but let's answer your question. Those overloads are cause because AENA, despite being in the hot summer season, is opening the least amount of sectors everyday, no matter if the traffic load is high. And as we are the only country in the world where ATCOs don't have the capacity of claiming flow actions, then non operational staff, from their offices, decide to accept a lot of traffic with the weakest possible configuration. So 1 the sectors are strongly overloaded to the point of us startinf to feel fear. Fear for you and the passengers, and fear to fail in providing safety, our main task. We have reported these overloads to the AESA, the safety agency, and instead of investigating and assuming that AENA has to change the way ATC is operated in Spain, they pedantly declare that AENA's flow management staff is perfect and that if there were any overloads at all, they are due to ATCos for giving directs and different FL as those requested by crews in the Flight Plans. So the Safety Director from AENA, Mr Cozar, repeats the message to us and ties our hands. I used to give directs every time I could, I used to give the FL desired by the crew (obviously if available), but I cannot anymore. It is not some kind of punishment nor making you aware of my poor T&C situation. It is just that I can be fired if I give a direct because my sector allows it, and then three sectors later or in the next FIR ruled by AENA, there is an incidente caused by overload. I mean fired. And by the way, as the sectors are usually overloaded these days, I can also give a bad time to a colleague.
Do I think Mr Cozar is right? No. I would better work in a scenario where AENA accepts the reports on overloads, accepts its responsibility and tries to solve it, with magic like... Open more sectors? And then I could give directs again. I really wish I could. Believe me if I tell you that it makes my eyes bloody painful to watch an airplane perform a complete SID in my screen. But I have to. We have reported more overloads after all this stuff, and half of them have been archived without further investigation because AENA safety staff calims that we gave direct routing. Even when it is not the case, but in their opinion, just reading the time of departure and the time over the FIR limit, they decide the flight was given a direct routing.
4. Really simple. In the last 10 years, shifts were populated after agreements between AENA and USCA. If you ask me, I'll be honest, some were over populated just to generate overtime hours. But overpopulation of shifts doesn't work against safety. So if 5 sectors were needed for the duty, sometimes we had 6. Now, we are always under the lowest possible configuration. That means that even if the configuration allows 120 traffics/hour and the demand is 160 traffics per hour, AENA will not consider opening another sector, nor calling people to work overtime to open it, even if the new law allows it. They have orders of not payig a sole overtime hour. Now if 5 sector are needed we are forced to use 4, even 3. So all the sectors are at 100% or even 110% capacity (as now AENA considers that 110% isn't enough for regulations). When the sectors are at 80% capacity, I can give directs to everybody, and even if it causes a 10-15% deviation from flow previsions, the sectors will still be under control. If the sectors are at 100-110% real load, then the 10-15% deviation due to direct routing or FL changing is impossible to assume.
So, as pilots don't tend to understand that matters in real time, I really make the effort of explainig it to them, but I have not always the time to do it on the frequency, and I feel that some leave swearing and unhappy with me and the service I provided. I never have forgotten that I am providing a service. I do not consider myself the one on command, or superior to the pilots or whatsoever. I do my best to help, don't give importance to some childish attitudes as "I could have overtaken that traffic" and the like and try to keep relaxed, kind and constructive. Believe me, I am not able of giving direct to outgoing traffic and I wish I could. I still give directs to the incoming traffic when I can, as I am able to see if there are overloads in the TMA and act consequently.
Finally I will answer your last 2 comments:
Even if your destination is UK, departing from the Canary Islands you will have to cross Madrid FIR. If you depart my TMA and your route does not involve any AENA FIR, then I would be glad to shorten yours or any other pilot's route.
And finally, we cannot strike. For 3 reasons. We are legally fighting the new law. AENA is trying to force us to go to strike far before the decree, from early 2009. If we did so, then as the conflict would be between us and AENA, the government would immediately act as a referee, and force then the new T&C not as they are now, imposed, but as a new collective agreement. Secondly, when we go to strike, the minimum services declared for us are 100 to 110 %. So the strike doesn't stop the air traffic at all. You get all the inconvenience of the strike (bad press and government's referee) with no benefits as the service will work exactly the same as if you don't strike. And third, we cannot force a savage strike, not respecting the minimum services, because we have from 2003 an "Air Safety Law" performed by another minister also very keen to us, that entitles the government to fine us with only 250.000 € if we attempt against the coninuity or safety of the system. Believe me, if we could gain something by strike, we would have done it far before.
Sorry for the length of the message, I hope it answered some of your concerns.
In fact, what we Spanish ATCOs hope you'll do next time you are denied a direct routing, instead of blamig/hating the ATCO, please fill in a report, or protest to the ANSP, AENA, asking for more sectors opened! We' ll all be happier if they cease to work at the limit, and, on top, to blame us on all the concerns provoked by their arbitrary decisions.
Sincerely