I suppose thats why one should always read the paragraph about being a 'mobile grade' before signing the dotted line at the foot of the NATS contract then......:E

rogervisual

quite a bold statement... why do you think that, just out of interest? Do you mean Heathrow Tower, or Heathrow app/dir or both?

I don't know - why are city traders paid six-figure salaries for what appears to me to be guessing?

Ginger ;)

I wholeheartedly agree with gingerbreadman, and in response to the earlier posting; I dont (and didn't in my original post) suggest for a second we should all be paid the same - far from it in fact.

My points were how 'they' decide what salary is awarded to what unit and what basis that salary is decided.

All of my earlier points still stand.

I don't want to get unit specific here but, you mention Heathrow having nearly 400 movements a day.

I worked at a London airport (as close to the squaremile as Heathrow) that had closer to 550 movements a day - we were 7am-9pm, 2 runways (crossing), instrument approaches, no class A airspace, no radar (of our own anyway), pop-up traffic, jets up to global express size mixing it with over 350 based light aircraft & a tiny bit of corridoor airspace where every man and his dog transits, we we're short staffed, the equipment (whilst safe and legal) was very old - I was tower and approach procedural & because of short staffing, it was very often bandboxed. For that, back in the day, I got paid £38k. (dont get me wrong, I was grateful for that - but my point being as follows)

Now, granted, Heathrow move a lot of people & their taxiway system & GMC controllers really makes me gasp, they are aerodrome rated controllers, they also have class A airspace, parrallel taxiways, really long runways, losts of tarmac to put aircraft on, multiple radar positions, CAT3B ILS, state of the art equipment, loads of ATCOs to fill a fair few (necessary) positions and they get paid loads more.

Again, just to clarify - This is not a unit to unit slanging match. I'm not saying ATCOs that work at airports as busy as Heathrow should be paid less, far from it, I'm saying that all of us are just as busy in our own ways and are just as vital as the ATC at any airfield are. Obviously unit grading should occur, but on what grading each unit gets, seems to me to be (currently) wrong.

Brian, he said 400 movements a day more than any other airfield.

As for 'loads of ATCOs', sadly not!

Yep, that too!:ok:

hahahaha! :ok: Gonzo; thank goodness you pointed out that before this thread went on and on and on! lol

The place I worked had 6 ATCOs when I was there. I hope LL has more than that! if not; I can start Monday.

Bandboxed how so? I mean Approach & Tower bandboxed in my case

What freqs were bandboxed at LL? What freqs have you got there? I can think of delivery, GMC, TWR north, TWR south. Any others?

Kind regards,

Bri. :ok:

Uk vs Spanish ATC Salaries!!
 

Hi guys!

I'm impressed about your figures, because they are extremly low if you compare them to Spanish ATC wages.

A brand new (0 experience) Tower ATC in Spain, Secondary Aerodrome like BOH or SAM earns around 65-70K € (make the conversion).

Someone on Radar with 15 years experience in Barcelona, Madrid or Canarias TMA can finish the year around 200.000 € after taxes.

The surprise for me is that UK ATC is 500% professional if you compare it to the Spainish one.

This just demostrates that professionalism is an atittude regardless of money.

Keep it up guys, lovely service you provide!!!

Ha Ha gibas,

You must appreciate that it's a fine tradition over in the UK not to soil their hands by having such tasteless discussions over such things as being paid the going rate for the job.

In fact, at this very moment they are quietly and selflessly giving up their top class pension scheme because the employer has a bit of a financial problem.

You can't buy professionalism such as this!