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NATS Lose Gatwick Contract (Split thread)

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NATS Lose Gatwick Contract (Split thread)

Old 16th Jan 2015, 15:47
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NATS Lose Gatwick Contract (Split thread)

'Predicting £1m' but a market crash could wipe out the vast majority of a pot a few years prior to retirement. On the flip side - invest in the right funds and manage the account well and it could easily outperform that estimate. It's all a gamble, but it ain't secure. Then again, it seems the DB scheme might not be for much longer...
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Old 4th Nov 2015, 07:55
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What is the current state of play with transfer of the ANSP to DFS?
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Old 20th Nov 2015, 14:18
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The current state of play i think is that ANS has offered the DC scheme as well as a very competitive wage. Some would say just as good as the previous service provider.
Does anyone have a clue about the out of court settlement NATS received to back off?
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Old 21st Nov 2015, 07:44
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As an Orange mini bus driver, can I ask if the tower controllers at EGKK will remain or will they be replaced? Whilst on airport standby a few of us pilots were chatting and a quick straw poll voted the Gatwick team the best in the UK (We've never been to LHR). Managing a single strip of Tarmac as well as they do is no easy task. Fingers crossed for all of the LGW tower team. Summer 2016 will be carnage if many of them leave.
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Old 21st Nov 2015, 08:54
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Some are staying and transferring to the new provider.
The rest will stay on at Gatwick as employees of NATS for a period that will be agreed between the incoming and outgoing providers and then they will retire or get posted to another NATS unit as and when new recruits are trained and validated.
Summer 16 staffing levels will be fine.
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Old 21st Jan 2016, 10:42
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Out of curiousity, what date do NATs leave the Tower at Gatwick?
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Old 21st Jan 2016, 11:19
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The transition date is from 0001 on Tuesday 1st March.

Originally meant to be in October 2015, however pushed back due to legal action between NATS and GAL (Gatwick Airport Ltd), initiated by NATS over how the contract was rewarded. Apparently this was settled out of court.
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Old 4th Apr 2016, 19:13
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BBC Surrey tweets :

TRAVEL: #Gatwick: Some arriving & departing flights are being delayed by up to 20 minutes due to Air Traffic Control staffing issues

I wonder what that's all about .
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Old 4th Apr 2016, 19:35
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Originally Posted by 118.70
BBC Surrey tweets :

TRAVEL: #Gatwick: Some arriving & departing flights are being delayed by up to 20 minutes due to Air Traffic Control staffing issues

I wonder what that's all about .
Eurocontrol Network Ops Portal says there have been delays at Luton, Stansted and Gatwick due to ATC staffing issues. No AAVAs today at Swanwick?
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Old 6th Apr 2016, 10:22
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Got to love LAMP. Just wait till summer schedules kick in.
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Old 6th Apr 2016, 16:34
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Kick in? Splutter in, if they can find a gap!!
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Old 7th Apr 2016, 00:52
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Chatting to a colleague from Swan Wick recently............Hinted they may be 50+ ATCOs short this summer.
If true, how has this happened?
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Old 7th Apr 2016, 05:57
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Short of ATCOs at Stansted too if the external recruitment drive is anything to go by? What's going on
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Old 7th Apr 2016, 08:06
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Originally Posted by T250
Short of ATCOs at Stansted too if the external recruitment drive is anything to go by? What's going on
I think NATS may have let too many controllers go on VR!! When the numbers were announced a few of us mentioned that we may struggle this summer, off course what do we know!! It's not even summer traffic levels yet, watch this space!,
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Old 7th Apr 2016, 08:46
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Give lots of people VR and stop recruiting because somebody in an office has done a study which says we have more than enough staff for today. Be a little surprised when several staff retire, a few lose their medicals, get pregnant, leave anyway...Oh, and then change the airspace so you need lots more staff. What's that? Traffic levels are expected to rise? But nobody told us....
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Old 7th Apr 2016, 11:57
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Zooker,

We will not be 50+ controllers short. Probably half that.

Interestingly when the VR was announced a couple of years ago the (now) CEO attended a watch meeting. I asked him (and this is the best recollection of the question) "Given NATS' previous inability to predict required staff numbers, are you happy that the amount of people being released on VR is sensible? Then went on to explain that I started at NATS we had shiftwork in the college, my course had about 60 people as we were so short of controllers and someone panicked. No one thought that if the same ration of people passed out of the college then there would not be enough resource to train them at the units. 3 months later half the course was held over!

In his answer Mr Rolfe acknowledged past mistakes but assured us that the number crunching was correct.

So now we are short of people and traffic is going to grow at a greater rate over the next few years.

The next train crash will be when the current crop of controllers in their mid forties retire... there is a huge number in that age bracket...
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Old 7th Apr 2016, 20:22
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Originally Posted by anotherthing
Zooker,

We will not be 50+ controllers short. Probably half that.

Interestingly when the VR was announced a couple of years ago the (now) CEO attended a watch meeting. I asked him (and this is the best recollection of the question) "Given NATS' previous inability to predict required staff numbers, are you happy that the amount of people being released on VR is sensible? Then went on to explain that I started at NATS we had shiftwork in the college, my course had about 60 people as we were so short of controllers and someone panicked. No one thought that if the same ration of people passed out of the college then there would not be enough resource to train them at the units. 3 months later half the course was held over!

In his answer Mr Rolfe acknowledged past mistakes but assured us that the number crunching was correct.

So now we are short of people and traffic is going to grow at a greater rate over the next few years.

The next train crash will be when the current crop of controllers in their mid forties retire... there is a huge number in that age bracket...
Word is, Glasgow,Aberdeen and Southampton contracts have been agreed and signed ( for how many years or an extension to the current I don't know ). Another NATS NSL "top team" member is about to bite the dust and Edinburgh looks likely to follow Birmingham and Gatwick. NSL are on a shaky peg having allowed too many airport engineers , in addition to the controllers, to leave under VR as well.

Somebody knows what they are doing, not.
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Old 7th Apr 2016, 20:32
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I believe that NSL management don't have a clue about anything. I asked management 4 years ago why we weren't recruiting when it was quiet, so that when it got busy NATS was ahead of the game. The response was along lines that we don't need any more staff despite me seeing this happen for the third time in my years in NATS. Personally, I think NSL has a maximum of 5 years. All the contracts we lose are because of the 'overheads'. That's all the massive amount of management that we have to carry. Company is F@[]ed.
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Old 8th Apr 2016, 01:00
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Originally Posted by terrain safe
That's all the massive amount of management that we have to carry. Company is F@[]ed.
When I visited Whitely back in 2008 at a weekend for sim training, the route to the sims took me past several areas with desks mounted with PCs as far as the eye could see. I wondered who they were for and what the occupants actually did.
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Old 8th Apr 2016, 08:12
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Does 'just culture' extend to management?
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