Nautilus Blue – I suppose it basically goes back to what is ethical. Airservices Australia is a monopoly so of course it can abuse its market. I think that is what it is doing in this particular case. If there was proper leadership there they would have gone to the industry and said what the advantages were for the majority of the industry and then looked at using some of those advantages to subsidise those who were going to be affected but could not get an equivalent cost benefit.
Also, I think they are pushing this through in an incredible hurry. If you are telling me that the mandate came in last December and they are going to move quickly to these new airspace procedures and not allow the non-ADS-B aircraft to have time to be updated?
I just find it amazing that the CEO of Airservices hasn’t issued a statement saying how she is concerned about the small number of business aviation aircraft that have been affected and she is looking at doing something to minimise their costs and their problems.
I’m sure the United States could have decided to bring in the mandate five years ahead of time, but they realised it was going to cost the industry – especially the smaller operators – far more money than they could ever benefit from.
If the airlines and Airservices are going to get, say, $100 million per year in savings from this new system, what would be wrong with them using $5 million of that to assist the smaller operators with their extra fuel costs?
The fact is that the Australian Business Aviation Association was seriously misled by CASA when CASA stated that they would not consider any exemptions for the non-radar airspace.
Personally it does not affect me at all as I do not charter out my aircraft and if it’s sitting in the hangar I am actually saving money. However I am concerned about a number of the charter operators who are fantastic little Aussie companies that need to be retained in our aviation sector – not destroyed.