Originally Posted by
MPN11
I confess to having been involved in staffing the closure of MEDAs, and voting 'Yes' ... simply on the 'emergency' aspect being generally adequately covered by civil airfields.
The cost of operating a MEDA was significant in personnel terms. It required, back then, 5.25 ATCOs per position to provide H24 cover ... and a MEDA would require 2 positions [one Local and one Approach]. That's effectively 10 ATCOs to be paid for, even before you start on Assistants and the Ops and Engineering side. On normal day/evening shifts, you would need about 3 [=6].
And what did those MEDA staff do on their night shifts? Absolutely nothing. The out-of-hours use of MEDAs was microscopic.
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And of course in those days the MEDAS were all 7/24 single Met Observer cover at 5.6 per position. And this "paid for" by MoD in a roundabout way. At least the observations were 7/24 for network reasons. Lots of mushrooms picked and fried, though.