Alice Springs Airport - Tower closing due staffing levels.
 

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f8bad0fe0.jpeg
I notice that most weekends now the tower at Alice Springs closes either all day or for various periods during the day.

If Airservices Australia has more than enough controllers then what is the problem?

Jet airline traffic having the layers of safety removed again because of lack of controllers.

If only the media were interested in exploring safety issues before an accident and not wait until afterwards.

A few years back a separation incident involving a Tiger A320 outside tower hours basically terminated their Alice Springs flights due to safety issues.

Here’s hoping nothing happens these days. Plenty of GA operating in and out of YBAS at all hours of the day and night, mixing with RPT

AsA doesn't have enough controllers. Large chunks of en-route airspace now either TIBA or "expect delays due operational constraints". If AsA say there's no staffing problems that's just PR spin.

The cause is the same as the rest of the industry. Management cutting resources to the bone and when things get busy they don't have the staff needed.

Is it no surprise two other top threads on this forum at the moment are about ATC inadequacies and problems?

Not only Alice. Try Albury, Avalon and Parafield - "TWR ATS NOT AVBL DUE OPERATIONAL RESTRICTIONS", various days, various times.

So where are the professional associations that represent pilots appearing at press conferences denouncing Airservices Australia and the compromising of safety?

Where are the groups of CP - HOFO - MFO doing the same, demanding the government fix this before there is a serious incident or worse?

The apathy and lack of media interest is pathetic.

I heard that a majority of the population of Alice Springs were abandoning the town due to a huge crime wave. Not surprised there is no staff there.

Comments are closed off. I wonder why?

I thought they were downsizing
 

After waiting a few months about a job I applied for with them, I was then told “due to a recent review of our business operational needs this role is no longer required and recruitment for this position has now been withdrawn.”

"We're there".....unless we're understaffed and undermanned.

Airservices’s staffing issues are not confined to one town. They’re having issues staffing positions all across the country, including enroute centres based in capital cities.

Good news for those who went overseas- the germans are getting a 21% payrise.

Welcome to the real world mates, been happening in Pommy Land for years.

Q)EGTT/QAEXX/IV/NBO/AE/000/055/5050N00132W023
B)2303260630 C)2306262145
E)SOLENT CTA AND SOUTHAMPTON CTR/ATZ OPERATING HOURS ARE-
MON-SAT 0530-2100
SUN 0630-2100
OUTSIDE OF THESE HOURS, SOUTHAMPTON CTR AND ALL SOLENT CTA WILL BE
DEACTIVATED AND RECLASSIFIED CLASS G. TO FACILITATE ATC BREAKS ATS
MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE. SERVICE AVAILABILITY WILL BE TACTICALLY
MANAGED TO ACCOMODATE SCHEDULED MOVEMENTS.

Phew

It must be ok then

"ACCOMODATE"?

No, "ACCOMMODATE". Saving letters in NOTAMs due to staff shortages.

Saw that when I posted, it's indicative of the current UK situation with cost cutting in NATS (our primary ATS/AIM provider) and our CAA, the latter not only having staffing issues but is also now showing signs of "pay peanuts- get monkeys". Maybe life in the aviation industry in Oz isn't in quite such a bad state?

Very difficult to get circuits at Jandakot now, even on the parallels they are only allowing 2 aircraft due to "operational restrictions" and sometimes "Circuits not available" it's ridiculous.

Strewth, sounds as if you have the same problem as we do up here, they don't make controllers as they used to!

Jandakot - when I was ab-initio in a little red PA-28, there was often up to six aircraft in the circuit.
Now I go to my hangar to do stuff and feel lucky to hear 1 zooming about of a weekend.

As we know in the land down under it's not just Alice (enough of the song puns!) :Air traffic controller shortage disrupts major tourist gateway of Ballina-Byron Bay

Byron Gateway Airport has raised concerns with Airservices about staffing issues, saying they are damaging their reputation.

• EXCLUSIVE

By ROBYN IRONSIDE

AVIATION WRITER

@ironsider

• 5:07PM JUNE 20, 2023
• 15 COMMENTS

“Unacceptable” staff shortages in air traffic control have been blasted by one airport chief, who has told Airservices Australia the situation is damaging their business reputation.

In a letter to Airservices seen by The Australian, Ballina-Byron Bay Gateway Airport chief executive Julie Stewart said airlines were delaying flights in response to “consistent interruptions to surveillance flight information service (SFIS) staffing hours”.

“These delays are being explained to travelling passengers as ‘Ballina airspace closures’ when in fact the airlines (Jetstar and Virgin Australia) appear to be delaying flights to Ballina-Byron Bay or departing the airport, to ensure SFIS is on duty,” Ms Stewart wrote.

“This situation is considered unacceptable as there are no exceptional circumstances for these shortfalls that is being explained to us or the airlines.”

On time performance data for April showed more than a third of flights leaving the popular tourist gateway departed late, and 32.8 per cent arrived more than 15 minutes behind schedule.

The airport’s concerns followed an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report on a sharp increase in complaints from air traffic controllers about staff shortages, particularly at busy Sydney Airport.

READ MORE: Jetstar’s big change to network | Rex halts trade on ASX amid fleet woes

The ATSB noted that it had received a “large number of reports” from air traffic controllers in the past four months, compared to just one in the last five years.

“Fifteen of those reports have come from Sydney,” the ATSB said.

The complaints received through a confidential reporting scheme expressed “grave concerns” about the safety of air traffic control procedures out of Sydney.

One complaint said, “I can no longer sit back and watch the unsafe procedures and management practices taking place at Airservices Australia, particularly in the Sydney traffic control unit”.

“When highlighted that rules and procedures are being broken, the rules and procedures are changed with the stroke of a pen by unqualified people to give the appearance of compliance,” the report said.

Another said Airservices had “eroded the collective experience level of the controllers in Sydney by paying many to leave”.

“This has left a significant void in our knowledge base. The list of misgivings is so long it’s hard to articulate. It’s overwhelming the way management is mitigating away safety standards and training requirements for staff,” the report said.

The ATSB noted the Civil Aviation Safety Authority had conducted surveillance at the Sydney TCU in response to the concerns, and found there was a lack of supervision.

“CASA continues to work with the service provider on their planned actions to rectify noncompliance with (the regulation relating to supervisory personnel),” said CASA’s response.

Airservices denied there was a staff shortage in Sydney, saying there were 47 operational air traffic controllers employed, which was the number required under their workforce plan.

The government-owned agency acknowledged there had been higher levels of staff absence due to illness which had been managed through increased overtime shifts, and “various traffic management procedures”.

Air traffic controllers are entitled to unlimited sick leave in recognition of the fact they always need to be fit for duty in high stress situations.Things have changed since our day; back then it was the reverse, trying to force us to work while sick.

On June 9, staff shortages at Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne airports saw one in five Qantas flights delayed, and disruption to other airlines’ schedules.

On the same day, the airspace around Ballina-Byron Bay was closed for 90 minutes due to the lack of staff.

Qantas now routinely texted passengers to inform them their flight was delayed due to air traffic control staff shortages.

Virgin Australia confirmed the airline had experienced disruption on some services to Ballina due to workforce issues at Airservices Australia.

In response, Virgin undertook risk assessments before going ahead with flights to ensure the airspace was completely safe.

Staff shortages at Airservices have even caught the attention of Federal Transport Minister Catherine King, who recently took up the issue with chairman John Weber.

A recruitment drive was launched shortly afterwards to alleviate pressure on hot spots, with the aim of hiring 80 air traffic controllers by mid-2024.

On Tuesday, an Airservices Australia spokeswoman acknowledged there had been “service variations” at Ballina-Byron Bay due to unplanned sick leave among staff. Since nobody plans to be sick, this has to be read as a management failing – not planning staffing provisions effectively.

“Airservices is enhancing its service resilience by recruiting more than 50 air traffic control trainees nationwide in the next three months to add further depth to our ATC rosters,” said the spokeswoman.

“This also includes four new air traffic controllers to service Ballina airspace.”


Recruiting only solves the problem after 3-5 years and then only if the true number of staff required is acknowledged and the level of recruiting is retained until the shortfall is properly addressed and then continues at a rate which addresses to retirement rate. Recruiting trained controllers from elsewhere is a short sighted and parochial approach.

As attached, not just an Australian issue or one confined to civil organisations.