In the weeks leading up to Christmas 2010 there were record snow falls throughout Europe and parts of North America. Aircraft movements at major airports were understandably disrupted because of the weather conditions.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas 2010 there were record snow falls throughout Europe and parts of North America. Aircraft movements at major airports were understandably disrupted because of the weather conditions.
One of the worst affected was Heathrow which received wide media coverage with the blame laid at the airport operator’s lack of ability to find sufficient resources to deal with the situation. Other airports coped better because of their preplanning or volume of traffic.
What has this got to do with Air Traffic Control provided by AirservicesAustralia in Tasmania? In the last week the two major Tasmanian newspapers have run stories about the lack of 24 hour Air Traffic Control at Launceston and Hobart Airports. This service was promised in July 2010 to be available by February 2011. Government spokesmen have now promised the service will be available by July 2011.
Both control towers are shut for about 8 hours every night with the aircraft movements into and out of these aerodromes monitored by Air Traffic Control in Melbourne. To provide the extra coverage at both towers would require an extra 3 to 4 Air Traffic Controllers. For an organisation the size of Airservices Australia not to find such a small amount of resources in 8 months underlines constant warnings from Civil Air over the last 5 years of the lack of Air Traffic Controllers in Australia.
The government is planning to extend 24 hour coverage to 8 other airports at some time in the future. The question is will the planning for 24 hour Air Traffic Control at these 10 airports will have same outcome as the planning for a snow blizzard at Heathrow Airport in December 2010?
http://www.examiner.com.au/news/local/news/business/air-traffic-control-delay/2038537.aspx
http://www.examiner.com.au/news/local/news/politics/smith-slams-air-traffic-delay/2039324.aspx
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/01/06/198091_tasmania-news.html