Belgocontrol ?
 

Hi,

A friend of mine told me that Belgocontrol (ANSP of Belgium) has problems? Is this true?

Apparently in a newspaper there was an article a few days ago...
Does anyone has more news or is it a rumour?

G.C.

The article appeared in a Flemish newspaper, so unfortunately it's in Dutch. Don't know how much of it is true, the newspaper is normally a reasonably serious one though.

De Standaard Online - Het rommelt bij Belgocontrol

Basically, what it says is that the company is at risk of being taken over by the French, Dutch or German due to bad management, political interference in the appointment of staff, poor civil-military collaboration and some issues related to the Belgian state structure (the Flemish and the Walloon part of the country each having different priorities).

To quote an employee of Belgocontrol (who is not an ATCO)...
"It's about time that someone says what we all know and think..."

Yes, there is a problem, the consequences of which could be profound (and disastrous) in the future.

Industrial Action
 

Is it true that there are actions planned for next week?

I'll have to pass through Brussels somewhere next week...


Bye
G.C.

At this time, no actions are planned this year.
Hopefully the entire situation can be resolved by talking, but...
A New Year may bring a new approach to the problem....

okay,

great... Hope there will be a solution before it goes that far !

Is it still a governemental organisation or is it privately owned?

@EBBU
What are the problems in that company?
They are involved in FABEC aren't they?
So the future is "guaranteed", isn't it?

Bye,

George...

@george c

What are the problems in that company?
Bottom line, a lack of vision and strategy. The future is coming (FABEC) but a strategy seems non-existent.
One example, the integration of civil and military control. The belgian military tried to negotiate with Belgocontrol but apparently they did not get an answer. So they started talks with Eurocontrol at Maastricht...

In the mean time, a new control centre should be operational by april 2009. The official 'kick-off' meeting was held in september 2007. I wonder if Swanwick was operational in 20 months....? This time frame results in 1000s of hours of overtime (also for operational controllers).

...

Even going back as far as the 1960s with the RVA selection procedures were based on who you knew, rather than what you knew