i have read the airline article. i find myself very sad and upset by the way they feel. i do not refer to the pilot for whom on every occasion possible, i will send them direct and sometimes even got in trouble for it. Im just trying to get them where they want to go as quickly as possible so they may finish a little ahead of schedule.
I'm very disappointed that this capitalist world is getting rid of most if not all professional jobs. They think that computers can do it all and at minimal cost. Good luck to them and to our future children who will have nothing to do.
We see that students going to university now come out with a degree and about 20k in debt without having a job yet. This is surely going to go up since unis now can charge what they want. That is a big debt to then find yourself looking for a job/career and work hard to work your way up to a descent wage.
There is a fundamental difference with having to pay for myself to put myself through training. I can pay about 50k for an ATPL however the failure rate is pretty low. Paying for your driving licence may not be analogous because of the difference it cost but there a very few people that fail. ATC... the learning curve is steep per course. i was told that from start to finish, for everything including overheads it is approximately 600k. Furthermore, if i am to pay to become an air traffic controller, then i would like some sort of assurance that i would become one at the end of it. i'm not going to pay 50k and then after a year i get told i haven't passed.
Going back to the airline group's response, the EC compares us to the US and the very few centres they have there and thats why their cost is low but they forgot to mention that it is also subsidised by the FAA by about 500m annually. i pay my tax to the UK. Out of my taxes i'm sure are the wages for all the politicians and so on. If the EC is making all the rules, are we demanding that they get paid too much too then. They are no longer making the rules and how much of our taxes is going to brussels?
This is a very big and complex bubble to which everyone is looking for scapegoats. Look what happened in Spain. Everyone wants someone to blame for the poor financial crisis, lets blame them. All controllers in europe are being made to look like the scapegoats. why? i dont know but maybe its to do with money. with all these cost cutting from ANSPs, do you really think that airlines will reduce their ticket prices? will i be able to go on holiday in august for 100 quid? i doubt it.
how long will it be before a certain merger that has taken a few spanish towers comes over to the UK and starts bidding on UK airports?
maybe to make more money, we should have a promotion like orange wednesdays......maybe a 2 for 1 blue skies thursdays......
Will i stop sending my pilots colleagues direct. no, of course not because i consider myself a professional (or so i think). however, this cost cutting being enforced is treading close to peoples fuses all over europe.
As for having to pay yourself to become an air traffic controller. Good luck to the guys who will take out loans/life savings to put themselves through the course and i hope they dont fail or worse, get posted somewhere they never wanted to go.
My rumour is done and thanks for the link on the airlines response