PPRuNe Forums - "Air NZ cancelling 25 services a week"

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- - "Air NZ cancelling 25 services a week" - Stuff.co.nz (https://www.pprune.org/australia-new-zealand-pacific/367918-air-nz-cancelling-25-services-week-stuff-co-nz.html)

"Air NZ cancelling 25 services a week" - Stuff.co.nz

Stuff.co.nz

Quote:

Air New Zealand says it will have to cancel 25 regional flights each week because air traffic control tower staff will take lunch breaks from Wednesday.

In a statement the airline called the situation farcical.

Employment Relations Act changes which come into effect on Wednesday will see the Air Line Pilots Association insisting that members take their breaks at scheduled times rather than working flexibly as they have in the past.

Air New Zealand says this means the Civil Aviation Authority from Wednesday will be forced to close five towers, twice each day, for 30-45 minutes.

Air New Zealand short haul head Bruce Parton said it was farcical that services to five regional airports would have to be cancelled.

"We have been working hard to avoid redundancies across the business where possible, and it is disappointing that this action will put jobs at risk at two of Air New Zealand's regional airlines - Air Nelson and Eagle Air," Mr Parton said.

Regional customers will face disruption and reduced frequency as Air New Zealand is forced to remove approximately 2500 seats each week from regional capacity.

Air New Zealand also stands to lose up to $3 million in revenue through the cancellation of these services to Gisborne, Napier, New Plymouth, Rotorua and Invercargill Airports.

"We appear to be the victims of an overly rigid dictate to business on how to achieve a healthy and safe workplace, not to mention further constraints to the agility and adaptability we need in these incredibly challenging times," he said.

Seems a tad dramatic, sure something can be worked out.

I guess Air Nelson wont be needing the RNZAF pilots any more.

Seriously though what do people expect? ATC staff at the mentioned airports work hard so they need regular breaks to clear their heads. If airways cannot manage to assign regular breaks with the staff they have then get more staff.

Quote:

Air New Zealand says it will have to cancel 25 regional flights each week because air traffic control tower staff will take lunch breaks from Wednesday.

If the towers go off watch for the controllers to have their meal breaks wouldn't the zone revert to class G airspace for this time?
Why would services be canceled just because of this? I think Taupo, Hokitika, etc are all uncontrolled and Eagle operate to these destinations.

Or is the journalist confused between controllers and pilots?

Haha, when was the last time a GS controller "worked hard"?? A 152 in the circuit and a Beech on the arc? Come on, lets get serious.

Just follow the Australian example - close the airspace for hours at a time somewhere every day because there aren't enough air traffic controllers.

Nothing has gone wrong so far, so it must be safe.

Class G ops - codgepiece has it. Can't see why NSN and EAG would need to stay at home for them, EAG flys uncontrolled all the time, and NSN goes into KK as well.

I smell a coverup...

I spent 5 years in NZGS when they had significantly more movements than they have now and breaks were never a problem. We simply broadcast, "Gisborne Tower off watch for the next XX minutes" and went downstairs to the little boys room or the airport cafeteria for some food. Never a problem!

Whatever you do, ALPA, don't lose public support by insisting on rostered, specific-time breaks at small units. If a scheduled public transport arrival is scheduled in that time, you won't be making any friends.

On the other hand, if movement levels are getting beyond what one person can reasonably handle, then a call for increased staff is in order.

The airline cannot continue to fly to an airport deemed to require ATC because CAA has removed that option from the operator via the AOC ammendment just out.

If these airports were so stressfull to work at, get an additional controller!

Since they haven't, one could assume that they aren't too busy, and that eating a sandwich and sipping a coffee while controlling the odd RPT Saab/Dash, and a bloke doing circuits wouldn't be too stressful. And if it was, finish the sandwich later!

I don't land the plane at the nearest airport at 1230pm to have lunch - you work around the workload.

Quote:

The airline cannot continue to fly to an airport deemed to require ATC because CAA has removed that option from the operator via the AOC ammendment just out.

So the 1900s can not go into these airports without ATC? old WT would have all of these airports U/C if he could.

Interesting times ahead huh? Guess thats why they made TIBA a part of the AIP a few years ago

I think that ATC is only required at airfields with more than a certain number of scheduled movements per week. Thus WR will not need a controller, but NP / NR / GS etc do. No controller = no scheduled movements during that period.

Also dredging stuff up from memory, I think Air Nelson always needs ATC because they operate aircraft above a certain capacity. Risk management means they always have to have ATC (CAA rule, not management decision.)

Happy to be corrected as always. Can't be bothered downloading Parts 125 & 121 to check... :ok:
O8

ALPA insisting on the meal breaks and I think the morning and afternoon tea breaks fror the controllers but not pilots. Doesn't make sense to me.

Are are Airways and controllers having EBA discussions at the moment?

Me thinks this a part of a big game of chess.

Oktas8
NSN go to KK, no ATC there.

c100 driver
From what I hear ATC at HN are not there for all Eagle departures/arrivals so are they changing their hours of service to comply?

why do they have towers in these places anyway? most of these places have far less movements than some australian airports without towers or with only C/AGRS.

Yet another triumph by NZALPA :ugh: especially in this current economic climate...

bravo :mad:

Im with Diseasel on this one, a cover up to conseal capacity deduction and the ideal opportunity to blame it on someone else.:D

Hi

Obviously I am not a Kiwi, and I maybe totally incorrect, but any correlation between this story and Wednesday's date ?;)

Dispute Resolved

Nice to see this dispute resolved...

Quote:

No disruption to regional air services

By MICHAEL FIELD - Stuff.co.nz Last updated 09:57 31/03/2009

A change to rules around meal breaks which threatened regional air services around the country has been resolved at the last minute.

Air New Zealand had threatened to cut 25 flights a week to five regional airports after the Civil Aviation Authority signalled some planes would be banned from airspaces in those areas for two 40-minute periods each day. This would have allowed solo air traffic controllers to take the break.

Airways New Zealand chief executive Ashley Smout told Stuff that the issue had come to a head over the weekend and yesterday they told Air New Zealand of the possibility of shutdowns.

"That was greatly of concern to them and they were going to be more impacted than anybody else," he said.

It was a key factor in getting resolution last night with the air traffic controllers' union, ALPA.

"The union worked pretty hard on the last 48 hours to come up with something," Mr Smout said.

A range of membership views had to be taken into account.

"At the end of the day when it became clear that it was going a major impact, both parties were pretty motivated to avoid it at all cost."

As for the disputed meal breaks, they will "be rostered and organised throughout the day".

Previously Prime Minister John Key said the Government would step in if the two parties could not agree on breaks provisions, which were due to take effect tomorrow.

Air New Zealand warned it would have to cancel 25 flights a week to five regional airports after the Civil Aviation Authority signalled some planes would be banned from airspace in those areas for two 40-minute periods each day because of the proposed control tower closures.

Under the Employment Relations (Breaks and Infant Feeding) Amendment Act, passed in September, workplaces must provide two 10-minute rests and one half-hour meal break during each eight-hour shift. They must also provide time for breast-feeding.

Workers and bosses must agree on times for breaks; if unable to, the breaks must be taken at specific times.

Not sure what the government intervention would have entailed though.
Whole thing seemed a bit odd from the get go really.

A law is a law. Over in Oz, single person towers operate for hours without official breaks. Whilst a break in traffic over here is good enough, the new law in NZ says it has to be rostered and official. i.e. away from the console = closed.

Typical of Parton to start going on about redundancies in the link network because of this now resolved problem. Cancelling 25 services - whatever - they would have just re scheduled them - should not have been too hard with the loads as they are at the moment - there seems to be a Beech, Q300, and a atr parked up at AKL everyday at the moment.

Redundancies was probably just the thing he wanted!

Wonder if the redundancies claim by air nz was what prompted the compromise late last night...