Open Letter to AENA/ Jose Blanco from a controller published on the 13/12/2010 in ABC a leading broadsheet style newspaper along the lines of the times. I dont have time to translate it all now so you can make some allowances for google gettting the words wrong ( e.g what is translated as track can in fact be " runway " in the case of talking about operating out of limits with snow contamination ). " Driver " is actually controller.
Edited to add: I posted it as soon as I found it , it is quite a long document , not suited to people who are more accustomed to cartoons and parrot fashion repeating a syndicated news story with catchy headlines. I would even say its heavy going at times but there are some very interesting assertions in it:
Such as management( non qualified controllers ) wages are actually higher but are being lumped into the pot when calculating atcos wages.
Serious breaches of eurocontrol / ICAO accepted guidelines for things like runway contamination where non qualified people are " managing the controllers " as a result of the decree. Controllers not being allowed close airports in the north even though the airport operator cant clear snow of the runway ( 15cm ).
Dramatic increase in what are described as category " A " near misses since new operating regime in the royal decree of Feb of this year.
Been delayed going into Barajas this year ? Perhaps its because some helicopter hat is trying to cut costs by running radar maintenance during the day even if the controllers are pointing out its peak time..generally speaking operational and safety decisions were being taken by people who are not ATCOS in a lot of routine and non routine matter.
AENA pump billions into regional airports that nobody will buy of AENA and insist on manning them even if the average is 18 pax a day. ( we have a super long concrete runway in our "gliding" club ). There are tons of these airports in the middle of nowhere ( even Ryanair wont fly there with no airport charge ) and AENA insist on keeping them open with a team of controllers. Yet AENA gets to " pump " the mass media and say look at these lazy fools.. I landed in Cordoba recently and thought to myself seems a bit much to have full service here..AENA has in the last years racked up debt with these projects alone of 13,142 million euros. Then of course theres the cost of the military post too.. So you have to ask yourself if thats " management " are they really " victims "?
AENAs HR department has cut recruitment for the last 6 years despite part of the original agreement saying they would hire. The notion that controllers controlled the intake is made a mockery off. (AENA needed the money instead to reward Jose Blancos ( Government minister ) wifes company contracts to build airports and buildings nobody needed. And if that was a control tower its cost of course is being hung around the kneck of the controller of course.
If there is serious interest in a "section" after the holiday I will try and translate it in detail. I can read / write / speak spanish and source documents for all arguments are there. Otherwise Google does a good job if you copy and paste individual sections in for translation. Good luck with it as I said its well referenced for people who want third party source documents but it means not being lazy
