And all this for a mere 800k per year! Sensational, I gotta get me a ring side seat at that trough!

Profitable skies for all

CDM tail-chasing
 

Meanwhile, Europe looks to move beyond a CTOT-based ground delay management system and focus instead on TTAs.

FAIR STREAM: Common approach to increase flight efficiency

Are we world class? Or simply buying last decade's technology?

Robovic is about right - CEO's have no more than a year to make their mark on a business or they are finished.

What worries me is that Stalb sounds like a rule following bureaucrat - not a leader, if what "Gentle flyer" reports is correct.

"Transform the Business"/ "business transformation", or "transforming" anything at all are plain and simple wank words that are giant waving glowing red flags to professionals that the manager has no idea what they are talking about and has been sold a load of coblers.

The fundamentals of a business are the fundamentals of the busines and they cannot and will not be transformed no matter how many high priced consultants tell you otherwise and I have sat on both sides of the table with that caper, so lets hope Stalb has been misreported.

Facts are stubborn things and will not transform, and I think I understand that ATC requires sufficient trained bums on seats to do the job and all else is unimportant bull****.

The second very large warning sign is the suggestion (if true) that some piece of software (metron?) is going to be relied on to do the transforming and that once this system is working all problems will magically be transformed away. That never, ever happens.

This idea - that once our software is delivered all will be well, is a crutch I've seen managers use time and again and it never ends well. Managers are either too scared to confront, or don't understand the real problem, so a little wishful thinking and the ever present software salesman convinces the manager that a computer system will solve all their problems without personal pain - and they never deliver.

Of course the manager finally leaves, blaming the software and staff for having failed them.

The issue that needs to be confronted, if Pprune posts are anything to go by, is that the economic concept of ATC/AsA as a "profit centre" that must generate a "dividend" to government is deeply and fatally flawed.

Until that mindset is removed then the situation and performance will get progressively worse, and that will continue until sufficient people have paid with their lives to convince Government that this experiment has failed and must be terminated.

METRON is a (mainly) red herring in terms of this discussion. It's already up and running, and does a job that needs to be done (how well it does it is another discussion).

TFN buying METRON, quitting and then being employed by METRON stinks, but sadly is hardly unusual in business.

I aslo disagree that ASA and the RAAF using the same system makes no difference. When Pearce ATC went over to TAATS, our workload dropped significantly. Unfortunately, the rise in traffic levels quickly outstripped the efficiencies we gained.

Even running ASA at a profit doesn't have to have a safety impact. If done properly it would just mean airlines paying too much. Just like an airline, a firm competent regulator backed by an expert investigator would set hard limits and requirements based on science and logic, and enforce them. Oh, wait...

I think the problem we had was who was running the show. The two focuses seemed to be stamping his personality and cutting costs. On present form his replacement seems to be a 'just coast along' type.

If I could change anything at ASA it would be scrap SDE and the fantasy of generic ratings, and replace ALM's with rated supervisors.

Interesting to hear on the grapevine that AFS are apparently looking at a Joint User, 1 TCU, 2 Centre model for 2017. I thought that was attempted about 8 management 'cycles' ago....Anyone for maybe Nambour?? :D

The tautological wheel!
 

Bureaucracy 101. Wait for a few 'cycles' to pass then wheel out some of the old crap that was experimented with or that was toyed with in another lifetime. Apply a timeframe such as 2017, perfect, around 4 - 5 years away! Just enough time for the incumbent Execs and Minister to preach the word about the new systems worth, do SFA for the next 5 years then depart and leave the turd in need of a good polishing by the new Executive! Can't wait for the next rumour, probably something along the lines of an extra 2.6 Controllers will be added to the Australian workforce over the next 3 years??

Ground delays in the form of 'gate hold' works well until you run out of gates to park arriving aircraft. What we lack in Australia is a 'time out' area where we can tow scheduled departing aircraft to sit and wait for a start time and thus free up the gates for arriving aircraft. The pond in Sydney is about the only obvious place but there are no procedures in place to use it as a gate hold.

Smoke and perhaps flames.
 

Pointed, accurate and all but ignored by anyone but the converted. Tough old road for the ATC kids. Seems to me the article could be edited to suit almost any agency, especially the aviation ones. Hopes for a better new year with a change of government ??