ifatca the controller - january 2012
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Also in this Issue:
4 IFATCA Regional Meetings
4 European ATCO Licence
4 CANSO Datalink Policy Conference
4 MANAGEMENT & ATC
INTER-
NATIO
NAL F
EDERATIO
N OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS’ ASSNS.
THE CONTROLLER
Journal of Air Traffi c ControlJanuary 2012
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Contents
THE CONTROLLER
In this issue:
Cover photo:© Pixattitude | Dreamstime.com© Luis Louro | Dreamstime.comDFS
January 2012Volume 50 Issue 4 – ISSN 0010-8073
Also in this Issue:
4 IFATCA Regional Meetings
4 European ATCO Licence
4 CANSO Datalink Policy Conference
4 MANAGEMENT & ATC
INTER-
NATIO
NAL F
EDERATIO
N OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS’ ASSNS.
THE CONTROLLER
Journal of Air Traffi c ControlJanuary 2012
The editorial team has endeavored to include all owner information, or at least source information for the images used in this issue. If you believe that an image was used without permission, please contact the editor via http://www.the-controller.net
Editorial ....................................……………………………………… 4Foreword from the Executive Board .....................………………… 5
Management & ATC FAA and Union Collaboration .........………… 7 Leaders, not Bosses ....................…………… 8 Would you like to work in Spain? ....……….. 10 Regional Meeting Seminar ...………………… 13 The Bigger Picture ....………………………….. 14
Training: The Final Effort ............…………………………………………...…... 17Int’l Day of The Controller 2011 ........………....………..……………………….. 18
Europe Regional Meeting .......….......………………… 20 Situation Greece ........………………………… 21 Common Licence ........………………………… 22Americas Regional Meeting .......……………..……..….. 24 Situation Argentina .......…………………….... 25Africa & Middle East Regional Meeting ....……....….…..………….. 26Asia/Pacifi c Regional Meeting .......…………………………………………………. 28 CANSO Datalink Policy Conference .............…………………………...………… 30Le Bourget Airshow 2011 ..............…………………………………………...…… 32Charlie .......………………………………………………………………………...…. 34
EXECUTIVE BOARD OF IFATCA
Alexis BrathwaitePresident and Chief Executive Offi cer
Patrik PetersDeputy President
Patrick ForreyExecutive Vice-President Technical
Scott ShalliesExecutive Vice-President Professional
Darrell MeachumExecutive Vice-President Finance
Keziah OgutuExecutive Vice-President Africa and Middle East
Ignacio Oliva WhiteleyExecutive Vice-President Americas
D. K. BeheraExecutive Vice-President Asia and Pacifi c
Željko OreškiExecutive Vice-President Europe
Philippe DomogalaConference Executive
Adell HumphreysSecretary
REGIONAL EDITORSAmericas: Doug Church (USA)Phil Parker (Hong Kong)Europe: Patrik Peters & David Guerin
COPY EDITORSPaul Robinson, Helena Sjöström,Stephen Broadbent, Brent Cash, Andrew Robinson and David Guerin
LAYOUT & PRINTINGLITHO ART GmbH & Co. Druckvorlagen KGFriesenheimer Straße 6aD 68169 MannheimGERMANY
Tel: +49 (0)621 3 22 59 10Fax: +49 (0)621 3 22 59 14email: [email protected]
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this magazine are those of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associa-tions (IFATCA) only when so indicated. Other views will be those of individual members or contributors concerned and will not necessarily be those of IFATCA, except where indicated. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in this publication is correct, IFATCA makes no warranty, express or implied, as to the nature or accuracy of the information. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or used in any form or by any means, without the specific prior written permission of IFATCA.
VISIT THE IFATCA WEB SITES: www.ifatca.org and www.the-controller.net
PUBLISHERIFATCA, International Federation of Air Traffi c Controllers’ Associations1255 University Street · Suite 408Montreal, Quebec · H3B 3B6 · CANADA
Phone: +1514 866 7040Fax: +1514 866 7612 · Email: offi [email protected]
EDITOR-IN-CHIEFPhilip MarienVan Dijcklaan 31B-3500 Hasselt, Belgiumemail: [email protected]
DEPUTY EDITORPhilippe Domogalaemail: [email protected]
CORPORATE AFFAIRSVacant
3 THE CONTROLLER
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Editorial
for costs, for efficiency, for delays, for eco-logical elements, but not for safety… After all, one minute of delay “costs” US$350, but a separation infringement is free…
But possibly even more astounding is the deafening silence of the national and in-ternational regulators. If they know about the situation, but are ignoring it, they are criminally negligent. If they don’t know about the situation, they are not doing their job correctly. Whichever is the case, their regulations and evaluations are about as credible as sightings of Elvis…
But rambling aside: although perhaps it would have been better to set the theme of this issue as “How not to manage ATC”, it’s actually “Management & ATC”. Hope-fully, between the bad examples, perhaps you’ll find inspiration from some of the more positive stories.
Also in this issue, there are reports of all 4 recent IFATCA regional meetings, as well as an overview of the various events or-ganised around the world for the Int’l day of the controller.
The next issue of the magazine will, if noth-ing else interferes, have an in-depth look at datalink. In that respect, the article on the CANSO policy conference in this is-sue is an interesting introduction to that theme.
Despite the depressing tone of this edito-rial, I hope you’ll nevertheless enjoy this issue. ^
(*) Key Performance Indicators is just a fan-cy term for ‘spreadsheets’: it would seem that in some places, as long as the spread-sheet is correct, everything is fine…
HOW NOT TO MANAGE ATC …^ by Philip Marien,
Editor
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As seen in a Dilbert cartoon a few years ago (http://goo.gl/KD4qC), for a lot of companies, their staff is no longer “their most valuable asset”: money is much more valuable! For an increasing number of ‘stakeholders’, (air traffic control) staff is the one and only thing standing between them and more revenue…
A number of companies in – what many people would consider civilized and demo-cratic – countries have reverted to “man-aging” their air traffic controllers with methods that wouldn’t be out of place in a totalitarian dictatorship. And it would seem it’s just the top of the iceberg: reports are reaching us from across the world of com-panies believing that a cheaper, safe and efficient service can be enforced through bullying, fear and repression against their “most valuable assets”.
Equally worrying – for example in the re-cent European Commission’s review of the Single European Sky implementation – is that safety is not even part of the equation. There are Key Performance Indicators(*)
Depressing… That’s unfortunately the word that best describes this issue. As seems to be the trend in other industries, the privatisation wave has failed to improve anything in ATC – even on the contrary in most places. Where the situation wasn’t ideal before, those in charge have made a lot of promises that privatisation etc. would make things better, cheaper and more ef-ficient. There are a lot of places where this did not happen and now, they’re out try-ing to find scapegoats… And what easier scapegoats than the “pampered, overpaid and underworked controllers”, as they are called in the media?
In the aftermath of the privatisation wave, a lot of managers have embarked on large, high profile infrastructure and modernisa-tion projects. Fuelled by (largely) bogus predictions that traffic would double in the next 10, 15 or 20 years, they’ve invested in everything, except their staff… When “suddenly”, the investments are not paying off what they had promised their shareholders (be it States or oth-ers), they’re trying to divert the atten-tion away from their irresponsible bad management. Helped by what seems to be cleverly orchestrated media campaigns, it looks like more and more controllers are paying the bill for gross managerial incompetence.
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One minute of delay “costs” US$350, but a separation in-
fringement is free…
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Foreword
While I admit many people, on both sides of the management/labor equation, con-fuse position with personality, and individ-uals with organizational policy, I can hon-estly say, I felt pride in my profession for the entire length of my service, and that included pride in having worked for my employer. While individuals and manage-ment philosophy at the top of the Federal Aviation Administration changed, I still re-ceived my checks from the FAA, not the in-dividual managers at the top. People em-ploy this perspective every day when they say they do not like the particular leader of their nation, but remain loyal and faithful to their country. What my 20 years as a Union official taught me, is that employers have more say in the development and outcome of the employ-er/employee relationship than employees. I have heard employers dispute this, but employers hold more power in the rela-tionship. How much sense does it make for an employer to say – though I have heard it often – “I will treat employees better once they treat me better”?
Frankly, the truth is that employees are a reflection of their employer. A manage-ment philosophy that treats employees with honor, dignity and respect is gener-ally rewarded with the same; not distrust and destruction.
I know some of my friends in management will disagree, but I have experienced a variety of ATC management styles first-hand. I began my employment as an air traffic controller less than 9 months after the fateful PATCO strike in the USA, wit-nessed the rebirth of a union formed by replacement workers, and was buffeted by the swinging pendulums of management philosophy USA federal employees en-dure due to a routinely changing political climate in Washington.
One oft-stated theory concerning the underlying reasons behind the dispute between FAA management and USA air traffic controllers leading up to the 1981 PATCO strike was a lack of employee con-trol in the workplace. FAA management stated the most recent management/la-bor dispute in the USA during the second Bush administration was largely predicat-ed on the belief the employer needed to take back control of the workplace from the employees. The fact that employers occasionally see employee involvement as a loss of management “control” in the workplace reveals a lot about our chosen profession and the people in charge of es-tablishing the necessary balance between management and employee rights.
As the first edition of “The Controller” since IFATCA celebrated its 50th birthday in October, it is only fitting that the focus of this publication concerns the relation-ship between air traffic controllers and ANSP management.
I have had the personal privilege of serv-ing as an air traffic controller for almost 29 years, before my retirement in late 2010. For 20 of those years, I also served the membership of my home association, NATCA, as a union official.
In that time, I gained a reputation as both a hard-nosed employee advocate and a valu-able partner with management, willing to collaborate with my employer to forward the ANSP’s mission and to protect and safeguard employees and the profession. I learned it was unnecessary to change my costume or even my attitude to deal with different management styles. I was the same person in every instance; serving more as a reflection or mirror image of the manage-ment official with whom I was working.
THRIVING, COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIPS ^ by Darrell Meachum,
IFATCA EVP Finance
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Foreword
development of safe and orderly systems of air traffic control.
The IFATCA Executive Board foresees the necessity to manage the inevitable con-flict of interests and perspectives between ATM employers and employees as an op-portunity for both; one that we hope will lead to stronger collaboration at all levels.
In the mean time, the next generation sys-tems are being designed and built. How quickly and efficiently these will become operational, will to a large extent depend upon the degree of involvement by line air traffic controllers in the future system’s conception and implementation.
We trust this edition of the magazine will provide some lessons learned from past-experiences with various ATC management philosophies and open a door for more productive communications, if not a more collaborative working relationship between ANSP management and employees. ^
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ready to do the same internationally with our collective employers’ representative, CANSO. While IFATCA is not interested in serving as a substitute for interacting with organized labor officials, IFATCA sees op-portunities in building a relationship with CANSO similar to the one IFALPA and IATA share.
IFATCA, similar to our sister Federation, IFALPA, is an apolitical Federation of oc-casionally political organizations, espe-cially the half of our membership that function as labor unions. We believe it is wise for international Federations of employee and employer associations to avoid taking sides in industrial actions or management/labor disputes. It is clear to everyone though that the situation is com-plicated by the fact the principals in any workplace struggle are likely members of either CANSO or IFATCA, and that it is dif-ficult to separate quality of life issues with quality of work issues.
CANSO and IFATCA have the opportu-nity, when such circumstances inevitably occur, to assist their members by keeping the lines of communication open. That opportunity disappears the moment one Federation calls for action or attempts to influence the debate on behalf of one of its mem-bers against the other party in an internal-ANSP dispute.
To date, the IFATCA Exec-utive Board has concluded CANSO is not yet prepared for a fully functioning col-laborative partnership with air traffic control-lers to promote safety, efficiency, and regularity in inter-national air navigation through the
Assuming they have the ability to insulate themselves from external political fac-tors, ANSPs must decide how much influ-ence their employees will receive in their workplace, especially when it concerns operational procedures and technical equipment. IFATCA will always encourage ANSPs to achieve their objectives through collaboration rather than confrontation with air traffic staff, regardless of whether a professional association and/or labor un-ion represents the employees.
It’s true that collaboration appears more expensive initially, as the employer must pay for ATCO involvement early in the process. As the 1981 and 2006 labor dis-putes in the USA demonstrated however, confrontation unavoidably results in delays in improving the system and eventually, ad-ditional expenditures are necessary to put faulty concepts and projects back on track.
IFATCA does not believe employer/em-ployee collaboration will prevent all man-agement/labor disputes or industrial ac-tions. Clearly, technical and professional issues are only a portion of the issues that can lead to ATC management and labor crossing proverbial swords.
The real test of a thriving, collaborative relationship between employers and em-ployees comes during the darkest of times, when external and internal forces are aligned against success. New employer or employee leadership, industrial relations disagreements, political shifts, societal turmoil, personality conflicts; all introduce tempting circumstances to diminish or abandon collaborative management/labor relationships concerning professional and technical issues.
Whereas IFATCA encourages employees and employers to collaborate as full part-ners at the ANSP level, IFATCA stands
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THE SHORTER ROUTE TO BETTER DECISIONS
^ by David Grizzle, Chief Operating Offi cer, Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffi c Organization.
Safety with NATCA and the Pro-fessional Aviation Safety Spe-cialists (PASS) to identify and mitigate risks before an incident or accident occurs. The FAA has partnered with NATCA and PASS to conduct in-depth stud-ies on workplace fatigue among both Air Traffic and Technical Operations employees. And we recently began a Technical Op-erations Safety Action Program similar to ATSAP.
Nationally, senior FAA execu-tives and leaders of all unions that represent FAA employees have formed a Labor Manage-ment Forum to bring different perspectives to the table as to-gether we tackle agency-wide issues. Strong union support was essential for the launch of our current Workforce En-gagement initiative, which em-powers employees to work to-gether locally to improve their individual workplaces.
Collaboration at all levels is worth the effort because it al-most always produces better outcomes. At the FAA we have been able to accomplish things that we probably couldn’t have done without collaboration. As facilities around the country form their own collaborative work groups, I expect many more successes. ^
ogy and airspace. Already, this teamwork is paying dividends. Some examples: three air traffic facilities in Alaska collaboratively agreed to more than 20 changes to Letters of Agreement, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the flow of air traffic. At the Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center, collaborative team came up with an airspace redesign plan. This will save airlines an esti-mated $19 million in annual fuel costs while reducing carbon emissions by more than 100,000 tons. In addition, a realignment of operational areas will save the facility almost $4 million a year in reduced payroll costs. And seven facilities impacted by the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace Re-design are using the collaborative process to resolve complex technical issues between multiple facilities. As a result, airplanes will soon be moving out of and through the New York area more efficiently.
In fact, the test sites have been so successful that we are rolling out the collaborative pro-cess nationwide. FAA managers and NATCA facility representatives from nearly every air traffic facility in the country have been trained in the collaborative process.
Collaboration is crucial to advancing safety throughout the National Airspace System and creating a vibrant and effective safety culture within the entire FAA. Over the past few years we have received thousands of val-uable safety reports from controllers through the voluntary, non-punitive Air Traffic Safety Action Program (ATSAP).
We are now working with our other union counterparts to increase collaborative involve-ment. The FAA formed the Partnership for
A new spirit of cooperation between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and its labor unions is enhancing our ability to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world.
The 2009 contract between the FAA and National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) provided multiple opportunities for collaboration. In addition, President Obama’s Executive Order of December 9, 2009, cre-ated a formal process of labor/management forums to improve delivery of government services. Finally, the FAA’s senior manage-ment believes strongly that robust collabora-tion and clear decision-making authority are a potent combination to drive better deci-sions with shorter overall cycle time.
After many discussions, the FAA and NATCA agreed on a sustainable collaborative pro-cess. Both labor and management wanted to create:
• Cooperative and productive labor-man-agement relations throughout the Agency,
• Improved delivery of aviation services to the American people.
To accomplish this, NATCA and the FAA met during the spring of 2010 to discuss how col-laboration would fit into the Agency’s mis-sion and future. Why? The reason is simple. People doing the day-to-day work know where change is needed and have the expe-rience to find innovative solutions. Collabo-ration harnesses this expertise at a pivotal time, as the FAA champions the develop-ment and implementation of NextGen.
Last year, FAA field managers and NATCA facility representatives at 10 test sites across the country began to formally collaborate on issues related to procedures, technol-
FAA AND UNION COLLABORATION
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4 Management & ATC
ward when there is little change going on. Yet, I was offered that position during the fundamental reorganisation in our company and at the end of a major system upgrade in the operations room. So, the managers had to learn how to ‘lead’ the changes. Bold as brass, I accepted the challenge! Only two years after becoming one of the youngest supervisors in our new ACS environment, I also became the Deputy Head of the Air Traffic Control Cen-tre. Three roles at the same time: a leader, a fellow-controller and a subordinated ATC of-ficer have proven to be a winning combina-tion, even if I say so myself.
It was practically possible to manage all this because of the unique setup of our compa-ny: all the managers in ATM Division of CCL, starting with the Director and all the other lower positions, must have a valid license as fully operational air traffic controllers or at least to have over fifteen years of ATC op-erational background experience. This policy is defined and regulated in both CCL docu-mentation and the collective agreement, and there seems to be no intention of changing the existing rules and regulations. This policy was also one of the main reasons why I de-cided to wear three hats - I actually do the same job, be it from three different perspec-tives. My duty is to control traffic if my col-league is the supervisor that day, but I am
4 Management & ATC
LEADERS, NOT BOSSES
^ by Željko Oreški, IFATCA EVP Europe
Last April, I was appointed IFATCA Executive Vice-Presi-dent - a new highly demanding task in my professional career, covering 44 European Member Associations of about 22,000 air traffic controllers.
Personally, I believe such an appointment is the result of hard work, commitment and utter dedication. My engage-ment in aviation, more spe-cifically air navigation services started nineteen years ago: I joined Croatia Control Ltd (CCL) as a young ACC trainee. From the very beginning, I’ve also been a member of Croa-tian Air Traffic Controllers’ Association. For fifteen years, I‘ve served my company as an Area Radar Surveillance Con-troller. In the last eight years, I’ve combined this with the presidency of the Croatian As-
4 Željko Oreški
sociation, thereby trying to manage profes-sional affairs with the CCL Management. My goal, above all, has been to try and become a good leader, rather than a good manager, since these are two different competencies. Leadership is about giving directions, build-ing teams and inspiring others by own vivid examples of performance, consistency and lots of communication. At least this has been my sincere intention and my devoted ambi-tion in the past eight years.
I have obviously not been too bad at doing the President’s job - writing documents, run-ning projects, investing all the possible en-ergy, knowledge and experience and, at the same time, giving all my heart, “infected” with ATCO profession pride throughout the entire time of my service. I like to think it played a major role in being offered a mana-gerial position within the company, almost 5 years ago.
Being offered such a function does not guar-antee you are going to be accepted as a lead-er. It’s not a question of complying or agree-ing; it’s a matter of convincing people to follow you, which is a process that takes time.
I was, and still am, aware that leadership and changes go together. Managing, i.e. simply running, an organization is more straightfor-
It’s a matter of convinc-ing people to follow you.
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A VIEW ON ATCO – COMPANY MANAGEMENT RELATIONS
4 Professional competency (knowledge, skill, experience) is an inevitable part of a leader’s profi le Photo: EUROCONTROL
been completely avoided, it’s fair to say that there’s a good chance it would have been re-solved with much less disrup-tion to the travelling public.
At an international level, IFAT-CA is open to cooperate with associations that unite employ-ers and ANSP management. The relationship with our in-ternational partners is by defi-nition a matter for the entire Executive Board (EB) rather than a regional concern. At the same time, IFATCA encourag-es employees and employers to cooperate as full partners at local, ANSP level. ^
control problems, their knowledge should be continually updated.1’’
And further on: ‘’Where ATS providers are controlled by senior management who do not have experience as senior Air Traffic Controllers then the position of Chief Air Traffic Controller shall be created. The Chief Air Traffic Controller shall be an experienced senior air traffic controller and shall be an-swerable for, amongst other things, the safe-ty of the air traffic control system. The Chief Air Traffic Controller shall report directly to the Chief Executive Officer of the ATS provider and to the head of the regulatory organization.2’’
An interesting statistic is that the ANSPs with the highest productivity are also the ones that have developed good/better/the best relationship between the management and the operating staff. More often than not, the professional associations were considered ‘stakeholders’. Open and honest communi-cation between management and associa-tions is a vital key to success.
Unfortunately, a number of the well devel-oped countries within European Union are currently struggling with how to ‘behave’: our Spanish or Greek colleagues to name but two, are involved in ugly struggles with their management and even their national government. It is more than certain that the service provider management in those cases is not following the best practice suggestions listed above. On the contrary, I am certain that they are not even following required EU regulations. While I wouldn’t go as far as saying that such confrontations would have
4 Management & ATC
4 Zagreb ACC Photo: CCL Ltd.
also responsible for taking care of the traffic distribution to the various sectors during my supervisor’s shift and finally to arrange and to manage, yes, to manage how to distribute monthly rosters to my colleagues. That is, to keep our Ops room ‘furnished’ with air traffic controllers enabled to handle over two thou-sand over- flight operations per day!
Managing comes from the Latin word for a hand, and it originally means handling some-thing – a sword, a ship, a supply of money or a machine. One should notice that these are all things to be handled. Now it is very easy to transfer the ‘thing mentality’ across the line to people. In other words, one easily starts thinking of people as things that can be ‘managed’ like machines, money or (hu-man) resources.
I realized a long time ago that professional competency (knowledge, skill, experience) is an inevitable part of a leader’s profile. Since 2006, I’ve attended all possible ATM and Human Factors courses in the Eurocontrol Institute in Luxembourg. In addition, I try to read as much as possible on these subjects – and in particular the work of John Adair. Anyone familiar with his books should easily recognize where my views on being a leader instead of being a boss, capable of manag-ing people, come from.
IFATCA policy, on Management of ATS providers, is that: ‘’ATC management staff directly concerned with executive air traf-fic control matters should have a thorough knowledge of air traffic control and be hold-ers of an air traffic controller’s license and, to remain fully conversant with current air traffic
ANSPs with the highest productivity are also
the ones that have […] the best relationship
between management and operating staff.
91 IFATCA Technical and Professional Manual 2011, page 4 1 2 3; 2.2.12 IFATCA Technical and Professional Manual 2011, page 4 1 2 3; 2.2.1
The names in this article have been changed for obvious reasons. But other than that, the account is truthful and described facts as experienced by Spanish controllers over the past 2 years.
I am an air traffic controller at Barcelona ACC. Today is Wednesday and I am rostered for a night shift. On the way to my car, I see my neighbour parking, returning from his job. Lucky him, he is having dinner with his family; I haven’t had that chance for 6 days in a row now. We used to say hello and have a little chat, but he doesn’t even look at me anymore. He has listened to the Minister, read the news-papers and believed them – who wouldn’t?
After the smear campaign carried out by the Spanish Government and media for the last two years – strongly supported by AENA, the state controlled company I work for – even my eldest daughter told me “there is no need for you to tell my friends what you do for a living, right?” She is smart; she does not want to be bullied at school, like other colleague’s chil-dren are. You cannot honestly blame those kids; they just repeat what they hear from their parents. And their parents just repeat what they have heard from the Minister and the President of AENA: controllers are lazy, overpaid and barely educated; they are noth-
4 Management & ATC
WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK IN SPAIN?
4 Newspapers believed everything spoon-fed by AENA and the Spanish government. Photo: DP
4 Entrance to the Barcelona ACC Photo: Maria Eugenia Santa Coloma Costea
“President of AENA: controllers are lazy, overpaid and barely
educated”.
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DIRTY PRESS MANIPULATION AND TOTAL COLLAPSE OF SOCIAL DIALOGUE RESULT IN MAJOR SAFETY CONCERNS
exandra, looks sick. Checking whether she’s OK, it turns out that she is sick. I would like to tell her to go to the doctor in the ACC, but I stop myself. She will not go, and we both know why: she would need to sign a statement, declaring she is not faking illness.
If someone decides you’re not sick when you’ve signed this declaration, Spanish Air Safety Law (LSA) foresees sanctions from EUR 90.001 to EUR 225.000 for controller found pretending to be sick. Additionally, his or her ATC li-cense is immediately revoked. The same penalties are defined for an unjustified absence of
from the count. We should have a roster of 5 days working and 3 days off (the first one being the sleeping day after the night), but the company is allowed to deviate from this in exceptional circumstances. 2011 appears to be a very exceptional year indeed, since most cycles appear to be of the 6/2 variety, even during the winter months.
Friday was my free day – and my son’s birth-day. Now, thanks to the CSC, I will start working while he is still at school, and I will return home at 23h30; I will not see him. I console myself by thinking that it could be worse: some colleagues have got a CSC for the day their son was receiving his first Com-munion. Others, for the day they were best man at a wedding…
I do my best to calm myself down and sit down to work. My colleague beside me, Al-
4 Management & ATC
4 AENA Headquarters Photo: DP
ing but unproductive privileged, selfish black-mailers and kidnappers of honest citizens.
Anyway, I still consider myself very lucky to have a job in a country where more than 1 in 5 people are unemployed... This is on my mind when I enter the operations room in my ACC, but I’m quickly reminded that to-day is another special day: procedures have changed again. Due to the budgetary restric-tions there’s no need to give proper training. In 2010, we had one single day of training; two days in 2011. New procedures in place? Well, a paper in my mailbox is considered your training. Daily briefing? Only a bunch of papers on a notice board somewhere. Today, they’ve changed the minimum hori-zontal radar separation: this, we first learned about from the newspapers…
I am just about to sit in my position when peo-ple from HR enter the room: they are deliv-ering “Compulsory Service Coverage”(CSC) papers: these oblige someone to come to work on his/her free day. There is a tense si-lence in the room, everyone deals with it the best they can. While providing separation, without failing to talk to the planes, some of them try to hide their face from HR people to avoid being seen.
If you have two or three free days in a row, you are a good candidate for a CSC, espe-cially on a weekend. My friend Ramón, for in-stance, was called to work with just one-hour notice on a free Sunday. He was hiking in the mountains with his family and had to rush to the ACC with all them in the car to get to work on time. At the gate, security told him that his family had to wait outside: visitors were not allowed.
But this time the CSC happens to be for me. Great! Today was my sixth day in a row, end-ing the shift Thursday at 07h30 and starting again on Sunday for another 6 days. Since the arbitration, we only work a maximum of 1670 working hours per year, but some months can have up to 170 hours, excluding holidays
Some [were] actually working while on medication, including sedatives.
4 Airport in Madrid Photo: AENA
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fice. This office initially only had the staff for regional enquiries only. Predictably, as the office couldn’t cope with the requests, regu-lations are not implemented and we face per-manently overloaded sectors, day after day.
7h30, the shift is over. I go to the canteen for breakfast, to avoid getting stuck in rush hour to enter the city. About half an hour later, the Chief of Division arrives, with some oth-er managers. They don’t mingle. Someone mentions the “working together policy” and the “just culture” terms. The rest break out with bitter laughter. Only in Barcelona ACC, around 70 of us have disciplinary proceed-ings taken against us. Around 40 are facing penal court, with prison penalties and the loss of all their possessions at stake.
Over the past two years, 39 different laws, regulations and administrative provisions ad hominem have been issued in Spain target-ing controllers. Will someone ever realize some day that this is not a sensible way to run a company? But what else could be expected of a company, in which the CEO himself pub-licly states that controllers just “measure dis-tances between planes on a screen”? Maybe these are the reasons that have pushed some colleagues to try their options in Germany, Australia… and even Iraq. Some others just quit, with nothing else in mind. In Barcelona ACC alone, 4 controllers have left in the last 3 months. Others will surely follow…
So are you still sure you would like to come and work in Spain? ^
An air traffic controller from Barcelona ACC
Note from the Editor: in 2010, Spain reported 47 se-verity A incidents to the Eurocontrol PRC. The same year, Portugal reported just one and UK reported none. Still according to Eurocontrol, Spain total de-lay per flight in Barcelona ACC has increased from 0.2 minutes in 2009 to 1.9 in 2010. In Madrid ACC, it increased from 1.2 to 2.5 minutes.
4 Management & ATC
one day from work; for not col-laborating enough with a transi-tion to a new service provider; or even for delaying or refus-ing to train new controllers, for instance. And I wonder: many of my colleagues, in towers that have just been sold, were forced to take the OJTI en-dorsement. If they ever have to evaluate a trainee who is simply not yet ready, will their judg-ment be influenced in some way by the Spanish law? Oh, and these are administrative sanctions, so there is actually no need for a trial or a court to determine whether you are guilty before you are fined and/or deprived of your license.
Alexandra happened to be sick during summer 2010. Her sum-mer holiday was cancelled with one month’s notice. This was after working two consecutive months of around 190 hours each, with barely 4 free days per month. She suffered insomnia and ended up being involved in a type-A incident. This was the final drop and she had a nerv-ous breakdown. After less than
a week on sick leave, she was summoned by the state social security medical inspection. They deemed she was fit enough to return to work, as was systematically done for almost all sickness absences. For 6 months, a regular Spanish doctor was not allowed to prescribe medical leave to controllers, not even for a broken leg. Only the official medical inspec-tion was authorised to do this. Given the odds, would you dare to call sick if you were Alexandra?
Many people who were on sick leave, had this revoked. This resulted in some, like Al-exandra, actually working while on medica-tion, including sedatives. Some others would not dare to call sick for other reasons: with a salary cut of around 50% and being stuck with a nice mortgage, some could simply not afford to be sick, since every single day you were off on 2010, you were simply not paid. Since the arbitration, it should only be a 25% reduction of salary. But it is still unclear: the company is continuously revising their own calculations and they add or subtract money from payrolls according to their change of will. They have done it 3 times this year. Let’s hope it is the last one.
Regulations and airport capacity still depends on management approval. During summer 2011, AENA required that all requests for flow restrictions would go via a single of-
12
4 Operations room of Barcelona ACC Photo: Maria Eugenia Santa Coloma Costea
12
Uganda (page 35)The GDP per capita is reported wrong. It should be 1,200 USD (as stated on page 75)
Cyprus (page 40)Under “IFALPA Safety level”, read: “Critical Issues; Pilot-Con-troller coordination for the a/c crossing the common boundary
between ANKARA and NICOSIA FIRs.” Under “Other Problem Areas”, read: “Lack of commu-nication between the ATC centers of ANKARA and NICOSIA. Number of crews fail to follow the published ATM procedures. Intervention of the illegal station ‘ercan ACC’ in the working procedures of Nicosia ACC.” Further inquiries should be made directly to [email protected].
Japan (page 41)The GDP per capita is reported wrong. It should be 34,200 USD (as stated on page 54)
Serbia (page 67)During layout, the map of Serbia was inadvert-ently replaced by that of Poland. This is the correct map.
Thanks to all who made us aware of these is-sues. ^
50TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE ERRATA
13
4 Delegates during the Americas Regional Meeting Photo: PP
IFATCA SEMINAR 2011
^ by Patrik Peters, IFATCA Deputy President
MANAGEMENT OF AIR TRAFFIC SERVICES
the South-American Regional Coordinator of ITF, Mr Edgar Diaz, as well as the vision of Joey Wong-A-Ton, President of CURATCA, illustrated the need for an-open-door policy to achieve trust, respect and cooperation. IFATCA Deputy President Patrik Peters led through the panel discussion, which focussed on the role of the professional association in this communication process with their local management. How can we have influence? How can the reporting culture be supported and improved?
Throughout the seminars, it was noted that staff associa-tions must be seen as ‘stake-holders’ and that keeping open and honest communica-tion between management and associations is a vital key to success. Proper manage-ment requires and appreciates feedback – and who would in a better position to provide this in a constructive and profes-sional manner than the air traf-fic controller association repre-senting the workforce? ^
time. Instead of dealing with the questions as outlined above, the role and importance of IFATCA moved into the centre light. Picking up from last years seminar, IFATCA PCX & CEO Alexis Brathwaite outlined our involve-ment and why we matter. A representative from ITF presented his view of the relation-ships with management and issues on indus-trial strife.
At the European RM, Philippe Domoga-la, Conference Executive, moderated the event, where Sid Lawrence, EUROCONTROL agency, gave a comprehensive presentation about their role in service provision, with a focus on the safety angle. He also covered topics such as Critical Incident Stress Man-agement, Team Resource Management, Just Culture, Safety Culture, Performance & Key Performance Indicators, Function Airspace Blocks, Human Performance and Network Management. Mr Lawrence highlighted the local ATC association being the best means for ATCO communication with their ANSP.
Milivoj Server Cuglin from Croatia Control Limited (CCL) talked about the structure and operation of the Croatian ANSP. All man-agers in their ATM division have to be fully operational Air Traffic Controllers or have at least some ATC background. This, he be-lieved, facilitates good and fruitful commu-nications with all members of the company. In the following discussion, one striking point was noticed: According available EURO-CONTROL data, ANSPs having the highest productivity are those with the best relation-ships between management and staff.
At the Americas Regional Meeting seminar, IFATCA PCX Alexis Brathwaite set the scene using the Indian story of the blind men and an elephant, which is used to illustrate the range of truths and fallacies. Different per-ceptions and backgrounds lead to various expectations, often being detached from reality. Presentations of Micilia Albertus-Verboom, Director General NAATC, and
Economic pressure and the implied changes have had an effect on air traffic management for many years already. The ongoing discus-sion about what the future air traffic manage-ment system will look like - how airspaces will be organized, how air traffic can be managed more efficiently and more cost effective also has an impact on the management of the Air Navigation Services Providers (ANSP).
What impact has this on the provision of safe and efficient air traffic services? For our air traffic controllers, there is still much confu-sion about how ANSPs should be managed and what role their ATC organization should play in this. For many providers, the poor relationship between the air traffic control-ler organizations and management have created working environments that are not conducive to the provision of safe and effi-cient services. While IFATCA sought to ad-dress the impact of privatization and develop policy, this has been hampered by the lack of data and vast differences that exists from country to country. However, there are clear-ly core issues that are common, regardless of the social or legal environment of a particular country.
This was the starting point for this years’ IFATCA Global Seminar. We wanted to ex-plore current experiences and with the input of the regional meetings delegates to identi-fy these core issues that require solutions. As air traffic control employees, management has a direct impact on the way we perceive and carry out our jobs. To facilitate finding answers and create a debate, we sought in-put from various stakeholders in the aviation community, both local and internationally. Organizations such as CANSO, IATA, ITF and IFALPA attended the seminar and presented their point of view.
The Africa Middle-East seminar quickly re-vealed an unforeseen challenge to the semi-nar as many of the delegates were attending an IFATCA regional meeting for their first
For […] controllers, there is still much confu-sion about how ANSPs should be managed.
4 Management & ATC
from the Department of Transport. An ex-ample of that would be the US FAA. A third variety is a wholly owned company, not de-pendent on government funding (hence self-funding), managed on a corporatized basis, and able to raise its own capital from banks and other sources. DFS of Germany might be an example here.
A fourth option would be to sell all or part of its corporatised ANSP to third party shareholders. This may be the public and other investors, or the sale may be limited to stakeholders such as airlines and airports. This privatised or part privatised ANSP may even be tasked with returning a profit to shareholders. UK NATS is an illustration of this second form of privatisation. If profit and growth is a shareholder objective, then other products and services might enter the port-folio; Training, consultancy, or specialised ATC related products may be on offer.
Finally, a State may elect to outsource the ANSP functions wholly or partly to a commer-cial provider, such as Serco. Examples are seen in the Middle East, and also at many air-ports around the world. The recent changes in terminal control in Spain, which saw NATS/Ferrovial and ANS Czech Republic/SAERCO S.L. sub-contracted to provide services, re-flect state decisions to outsource part of the ANSP service obligations in Spain.
The traditional state solution has been to establish a monopoly service provider. One of the usual consequences is that only staff trained by that provider, or at least to spe-cific national criteria, could be employed. This effectively usually leaves ATC staff with little or no option to work elsewhere. Similar-ly, staff is also dependent on one mandated source to receive ab-initio, continuation or specialised training.
Because of this legacy, ATC is still a long way from offering real employment options to controllers or aspiring controllers. This is out-dated if compared with what is already
4 Management & ATC
THE BIGGER PICTURE
^ by Graham Lake, Director General of CANSO
When the Chicago convention was signed over 60 years ago, key among the government re-sponsibilities laid down was the obligation for all States to take up a regulatory role in aviation; and that all States ensure that air traffic control services are provided in their sovereign air-space. Importantly, the obliga-tion is not to provide service, but to ensure that it is provid-ed! Let’s focus on the service provision for a moment.
Service providers, such as banks, telephone companies,
media companies, utility providers, air-lines, and even ANSPs, each have owners – shareholders in one form or another – and customers.
The customers determine what services are required and buy the services they want from the provider.
On behalf of the owners, the managing board plan the operation of the services to achieve the shareholders’ objectives. These objectives can vary: they might include fulfill-ing a legal obligation, as is the case for ATC services; others could be to build sharehold-er value or return dividend on investment.
With some types of company the shares can be traded. If (monopoly) laws permit, one company can buy another. Lufthansa now owns a large part of Austrian Airlines for ex-ample; but the regulator overseeing compe-tition did not approve the Ryanair acquisition of Aer Lingus.
Yet in the ATC world, monopoly not compe-tition is the order of the day. More often that not, a national government will be the only shareholder in an ANSP and these shares are not tradable. So NavCanada, a private non-share capital company, cannot buy the FAA, a 100% government owned organisation. But NavCanada, if it chose, might be able to buy Serco, a publicly listed company.
All this has a profound impact on the charac-ter, culture and capability of the ANSP world and on its employees. An example which is widespread is where a state may decide to establish a service provision organisa-tion within its Transport Ministry. The ANSP employee in this case is usually a civil serv-ant, which may be beneficial (job security, pension rights, …) or detrimental, as recent events in Greece, and some civil service pay scales elsewhere have clearly demonstrated.A second option is for a state to establish a wholly owned subsidiary to provide the ser-vices, funded by Government, but separate
14
THE LAWS THAT GOVERN ATC HAVE SHAPED ITS INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE. THERE ARE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED.
4 CANSO Director General Graham LakePhoto: CANSO
In the ATC world, monopoly is the order
of the day.
of his or her development and use the resulting qualifications wherever he or she chooses to live, or which provider to work for, based on the conditions on offer?
The airline industry, like ANS, is also highly regulated. Yet consolidation is increasingly widespread. In the US and Europe carriers are merging to form global mega carriers. Even where such mergers are prohibited by law, internation-al alliances have been formed to deliver economies of scale and to develop product of-ferings that match market de-
charges not on a competitive but a full cost recovery basis, yet also has the ability to close its airspace without penalty because of strike action.
Where does the accountability for ensuring uninterrupted service begin and end? The answer lies with the State.
Imagine suffering interruption to your water or electricity supply when you have no alter-nate supplier and no right to seek one out. Consistent service provision must be the goal for ATM too. Market dynamics certainly have a lot to offer the ATM industry. Undoubt-edly a consistent approach to training, licens-ing and employment of staff will help us all. Why are there no performance and efficiency standards for ANSPs established at global level, against which each ANSP CEO can manage the business and set user expecta-tion levels based on widely accepted criteria?
Why cannot a new aviation professional in-vest in his or her own training, be the owner
4 Management & ATC
available for aspiring pilots and other pro-fessionals in the air transport community. A structural challenge that can only be re-solved at the State level. For Europe, that also means at the EU level.
These structural issues give rise to today’s, sometimes unsatisfactory, industrial land-scape. Certainly, I think you will agree that the arrangements are not open and condu-cive to a market-led ATC jobs environment. An environment in which the next generation of aviation professionals have a wide range of options to enter their chosen career of Air Traffic Management. Or where existing staff can easily choose to work elsewhere for im-proved terms and conditions.
Service providers must meet legal obliga-tions for safety and safe operation. Particular-ly in the case of monopoly service provision, sometimes there are also pricing obligations or limits, as well as other service obligations such as capacity growth and environmental requirements.
Unlike monopolies, most service providers normally compete for business using qual-ity, price and other service differentiators to win and retain business. The constant evolu-tion of the mobile phone service industry is typical of a competitive and essential service industry. Market dynamics have developed a globally harmonised technical, commercial and regulatory (licensing) solution that gives the customers what they demand – a phone that works almost everywhere. When mobile telephones were introduced, telecoms were governed by a system very like the one that oversees our ATC industry today. The Inter-national Telecommunications Union set out standards and operating procedures and coordinated international harmonisation. If the phone industry today was like the ATC world, the business traveller would need a dozen or more phones in the briefcase to en-sure that he or she was able to communicate while travelling.
This harmonisation issue is one reason why ANSPs are vulnerable to criticism from air-craft operators. Aircraft are obliged to carry multiple different system capabilities to meet the specific regional or national needs of ATC providers in different parts of the world.For an airline, operating in a fiercely com-petitive environment, it is difficult to com-prehend that a service provider that cannot go out of business, has no competitors, and
Service providers compete for business.
15
4 Private Spanish investor Ferrovial manages some of the UK’s largest airports.Photo: ferrovial
4 Entry Point Central is a joint ATM training academy, providing initial controller training in Hungary.Photo: Entry Point Central
pect that some States will seek to leverage their ANSP asset, through sale or even some form of shareholder dividend. Equally, mon-ey for investment in next generation systems will be even harder to come by. Economic necessity creates political will. The ability to buy and sell shares in an ANSP, at least for the terminal services, elements may be clos-er than we think.
For the future, change is a certainty of the political, economic and technological land-scape that we inhabit. Those inevitable changes also offer significant opportunity to drive the ANS industry towards the seamless global system set out in the CANSO vision, and address the specific needs of the avia-tion industry. Experience has proven time and again that the interdependent nature of aviation requires all stakeholders work together, partnering for progress. ATC is a complex and regulated service industry. But it is neither alone in those characteristics, nor immune to the basic laws of economics. IFATCA and CANSO together have the tools to advocate the political and regulatory changes needed to support that progress. As service providers, we have a duty to find effective mechanisms to deliver the results that the aviation industry requires. ^
4 Management & ATC
mands. Indeed, these alliances were born out of the need to change despite the regulatory restrictions imposed by the ICAO system.
And our industry is changing too, be it slowly and hesitantly. We are starting to see alliances develop in ANS: COOPANS, the Entry Point Central and the European A6 (see box on this page) are examples where the complex tasks of ATM system
procurement, ATM training and ATM research have been tackled by a groups of ANSP seek-ing to leverage each other’s strengths to re-duce risk and costs.
In absence of consistent government policies, CANSO has established a global benchmark-ing programme (http://www.canso.org/busi-nesstransformation/ansperformance2010 against which ANSP managers can at least compare their own organisation’s perfor-mance against other participating ANSP.
The financial crisis enveloping much of the developed world will not pass us by. States looking for solutions are already showing signs of disposing of their assets to raise cash. Airports are high on the list for dispos-al, sometimes together with their associated ANSP activity. It would be reasonable to ex-
Economic necessity creates political will.
16
4 Consistent, uninterrupted service provision must be the goal for ATMPhoto: © Olga Besnard | Dreamstime.com
Photo: Chris
Bence | D
reamstim
e.com
COOPANS currently unites 5 ANSPs (IAA of Ireland, LFV of Sweden, Naviair of
Denmark, Austro Control of Austria and Croatia Control Ltd) have agreed to fully
harmonise their Thales Eurocat ATM systems while working together with this de-
veloper to define future evolutions and maintenance requirements. COOPANS
estab lish ed a joint procurement business model with significant economic and op-
erational benefits.
In June 2011, HungaroControl and Entry Point North (owned by the Swedish, the
Danish and the Norwegian ANSPs) opened a joint ATM training academy in Bu-
dapest named Entry Point Central. This long-term, cross-border partnership has
been created with the purpose of increasing the level of initial air traffic controller
training in Hungary.
CEOs and DGs of Aena, DFS, DSNA, ENAV, NATS and the NORACON A6 Group
have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) in 2011 to pave the way for
increased collaboration in the development and deployment phases of the SESAR
programme. The MoC also creates an opportunity to optimise resources, share
best practice, enhance common methods of operation and improve efficiencies.
17
4 Training
THE FINAL EFFORT
^ by Anders Halskov-Jensen, ATCO and Training Specialist at Entry Point North
Changes in traffic […] complexity do not
necessarily follow the progress of students.
17
ENSURING ATCO TRAINING PAYS OFF
preparing simulation yourself or buying it externally, but if this final effort is what it takes to validate an otherwise dis-missed student, it’s a rather easy choice, don’t you think? Once the exercises are made, they can be reused by future students with similar problems. It might even be considered to let simulation become a natu-ral part of final OJT. Maybe your national regulator could be persuaded to let simula-tion hours count as a part of the required OJT period, if the purpose and outcome is well described.
Simulation should be consid-ered as more than preparing for OJT. With the right prepa-ration, and customized to the individual student, it could be a powerful ”add on” that makes the difference between success and failure. ^ [email protected]
situations before validation. This we all know, and that’s how it’s always been.
In the current economic climate, simply wait-ing until the traffic increases again is no long-er an option. At Entry Point North, the trans-national ATS Academy of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, we were recently contacted by an aerodrome-unit who had a student on final OJT as a TWR controller. The instruc-tors were reluctant to validate the student, because of slightly insecure behavior dur-ing complex situations which occurred very rarely. The student could equally argue that this insecurity was caused by the fact that the chance to practice these situations was rath-er remote – an educational “spiral of death”.In order to break out of this deadlock, Entry Point North recreated the actual aerodrome and airspace in our TWR simulator. In coop-eration with local expertise, a number of ex-ercises were designed to provide the student with the traffic situations that needed to be practiced.
Together with instructors, the student spent a week in our 360° TWR simulator, going through all the tailor-made exercises. Both the student and his instructors felt happy with the outcome.
After returning to OJT, the student validated successfully within a month.
So, in borderline cases, it might be worth examining if customized simulation practice can supplement OJT. It does require a bit of additional resources or investments, either
Educating air traffic controllers is a well-known challenge. Even though screening processes have been improving since I start-ed training a couple of decades ago, they still don’t ensure that selected students will actually validate as operational controllers. Ideally, students who don’t meet the re-quirements should be discovered as early as possible, but we have all seen the faces of students who are being stopped during their final OJT. It’s a grim sight and it’s a huge loss for both the person who spent 2-3 years of his/her life on an education which is now in almost useless (or at least won’t get them a job) and for the service provider who spent a lot of money on the education but doesn’t get a controller out of it.
So what can be done to avoid that? Well, the clever and somewhat vague answer is that “it depends”. Of course, the benefit of the doubt should always go to air traffic safety and not towards a student, which is why it is possible to fail in the last minute, but some-times a tailor-made effort towards an individ-ual student is worth considering. Traditional ATCO education consists of theory lessons/basic course followed by rating course(s) with hours of simulation and ending with OJT in live traffic at an operational ATC unit.
But it’s possible that live traffic doesn’t come up with the challenges that we want to be sure the student can handle. Seasonal chang-es in traffic intensity or complexity do not necessarily follow the progress of students, and there is really no way of ensuring that the student meets an appropriate number of
Photos: EPN
LithuaniaThe Lithuanian association invited all their members, including retired colleagues and managers of their ANSP “Oro Navigacija” to a big party.
IndiaThe Indian Air Traffic Controllers’ Guild or-ganized a 2-day seminar on the occasion of Int’l Day of the Air Traffic Controllers. Theme for the seminar was 100 year of Civil Aviation in India: A Celebration of Past, A Window
4 Int‘l Day of the Controllers
OCTOBER 20TH – THE CELEBRATIONS
AlbaniaThe Albanian Air Traffic Controllers Associa-tion (ALBATCA) invited all their members, representatives of their administration and from local airlines, to a celebration party on October 20th.
IranThe Air Traffic Controllers’ Association of the Islamic Republic of Iran celebrated October 20th with a day for their members and their families.
18
AN OVERVIEW OF THE VARIOUSEVENTS AROUND THE WORLD
good cooperation and con-gratulated IFATCA on its 50th
anniversary.
Alexis Brathwaite presented an outlook at the work ahead of us. Paul McCarthy, IFALPA representative to ICAO and Carole Couchman, IFALPA re-gional officer handed a charter, commemorating the occasion and many years of close coop-eration, to IFATCA president.
Close to 80 guests celebrated together with the Executive Board, former Board mem-bers and representatives from several member associations, such as CATCA (Canada), NATCA (USA) and the Moroc-can ATCA. ^
All who attended agreed that it was the best Day of the Controller so far in Moldova!
Amsterdam, The NetherlandsWillem Zuidveld, Akos van der Plaat and Mat-thijs Jongeneel, from the Dutch association, took the initiative to organize a party, coin-ciding with the International Day of the Con-troller and the birthday of our Federation. They invited colleagues and friends back to the place where IFATCA was founded back in 1961: Amsterdam. The event included a boat trip on the canals, a dinner and, of course: a proper party. More than 70 people attended the event, which lasted until the wee hours of the morning…
Montréal, CanadaThe Executive Board organized an event in the Intercontinental hotel in Montreal/Canada. During cocktail reception, Mervyn Fernando, Director of the Air Navigation Commission and Nancy Graham, Director of the Air Navigation Bureau highlighted the
4 Int‘l Day of the Controllers
to the Future. Several dignitaries attended, including India’s former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (addressing the meeting in the photograph), and Minister of Civil Aviation Mr Vayalar Ravi. Subjects discussed included “Challenges and Initiatives for Air Traffic Management”, “Opportunities and Chal-lenges for Airport and Airline Operations” and “Managing Change in Civil Aviation”.
MoldovaThe association in Moldova organised a com-petition for their members. Eleven controllers participated in various disciplines, including a test on the history of civil aviation in Mol-dova, an English test, a radar-vectoring test (The Snake) and recognizing aircraft types. Participants also had to prepare a presenta-tion on a topic of their choice.
Overall winner was Roman Bologan. In second place came Plugaru Dorin and third was Pribe-ga Maricel. They were honoured during the inevitable party that was organised afterwards!
19
Generally, these have never considered the impact on ATC operations: for example, Spanish controllers must be permanently available and can be forced to work with a few hours notice. This is enforced through strong fines of up to € 225,000 according to Spanish law, with the additional threat of losing the ATC license in case of non-com-pliance. Not surprisingly, these threats affect not only morale and motivation but are also eroding safety: according to independent Eu-rocontrol figures, 2010 ended with 47 near-collisions (A-class incidents) a dramatic in-crease from previous years. Surprisingly, the meeting was told that the Spanish National Safety Agency is apparently not taking any action to address and rectify this situation.
The meeting also learned of the recent crea-tion by Spain of a new type of “low cost con-troller”, which is being introduced at some airports (e.g. Hierro in the Canaries). This is done by “upgrading” AFIS operators into tower controllers after just a few weeks of training. Those “low-cost” controllers are being issued the same European ATCO li-cense as regular controllers, who need to go through two to four years of extensive and certified/regulated training. This clearly and severely undermines the value of this Euro-pean regulation/license!
Single European Sky (SES)Finally the meeting expressed its concern to the apparent lack of visibility about the up-coming application of the Single European Sky project, especially regarding the intro-duction of the so-called Functional Airspace Blocks, or FABs. These are aimed at reduc-ing the current 27 fragmented European airspaces to only 9. The meeting noted that many actions due for implementation in the coming months have not yet started in many FABs, and that, for example, none of the 9 FABs had yet completed its own safety case.
The next EUR meeting will be held in Bel-grade, Serbia, for 19 to 21 October 2012, while Sarajevo, in Bosnia Herzegovina was selected to host the 2014 ERM. ^
4 Europe
IFATCA EUROPEAN REGIONAL MEETING 2011
^ by Philippe Domogala, Deputy Editor
This years’ meeting was held in Cavtat, near Dubrovnik, Croa-tia from 28-30 October 2011. Some 150 participants attend-ed, representing 36 Member Associations of the 44 IFATCA members in Europe. The ven-ue was the same as that of the 2009 IFATCA Annual Confer-ence. Thanks to Jaksa Zizak and his team, the organisation was again impeccable, as was the beautiful weather. Unfor-tunately most of us missed out on that due to the tight meet-ing schedule!
WorkshopThe first day was dedicated to the traditional workshop, with a
4 Delegates from 34 member associations attended the 2011 Regional Meeting.
global theme recurrent in all 4 regional meetings. This year, it was on the relations with man-agement and the role of the Controller Association – for a report on that workshop see a special report on page 13. The busy schedule on the other days was dedicated to the very com-plex problems Europe currently faces: the economic crisis and the implications of SES, SESAR and the FABs…
One of the key people invited to this years’ meeting was Joe Sultana, the COO of the Eurocontrol Network Management Directo-rate. Besides explaining the future role and new structure of Eurocontrol, he also made very pertinent interventions during the dis-cussions. It was comforting to see that the Eurocontrol agency concurs with IFATCA on many points.
DiscussionsSubjects discussed included fatigue and the ever recurrent, sometimes acute, staff short-ages. An apparent new trend in Europe is for States to sell some airport tower control ser-vices to private Air Navigation Service Pro-viders, (e.g. Sweden and Spain). The meet-ing expressed its concern that terms and conditions of control staff working at those airports were likely to be negatively affected by the changeover.
Mediterranean IssuesThe meeting called on Cyprus and Turkey to address the issue of lack of communication be-tween the ATC Centres at Ankara and Nicosia.
The meeting was informed of the latest gov-ernment measures being enforced in Greece in order to deal with their current economic, social and financial situation; and how this is affecting the air traffic controllers. A separate article on the Greek situation is on page 21.In Spain, the legal framework in which air navigation operates has had to endure more than 28 substantial changes in the 15 months.
An apparent new trend in Europe is for states to sell some Airport
Tower Control services to private Air Navigation
Service Providers.
20
CROATIA, OCTOBER 28TH TO 30TH
Photos: Guadalupe Cortes
4 Europe
21
GREEK CRISISBALANCING ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS
In the interests of safety, pro-fessional ATC standards must be maintained and supported; ATCOs must be able to work free from the stress induced by uncertain employment condi-tions… The Greek government seems incapable of ensuring this and the international com-munity needs to help out!
It is already a human tragedy for the Greek population but if something catastrophic does happen, it will not have been due to the lack of warnings at both national and international level that the Greek controllers have given. It will not be pos-sible for the international avia-tion community to continue to deny their overwhelming re-sponsibility in this! ^
the required ICAO level 4 training, after the administration barely managed to pay an English company to come and give some ini-tial courses. Necessary system upgrades and investments are continuously postponed.
The recent government measures are destroy-ing the last line of defence: the controllers, who have kept the system running over the past years, despite all of the above. They have lost all motivation. They have seen their income re-duced nearly 40% in just over one year!
Even this is not fully paid, as the administra-tion has indefinitely postponed full payment of some allowances. And this is on top of the measures that affect everyone: new property taxes, extra social security taxes, increased VAT, increased mortgage rates, etc…
A recent decision to convert the ATCO popu-lation back into the public services hierarchy, thereby putting a ceiling on their career, was narrowly rejected by parliament! While trying to maintain their professionalism, the control-lers are attacked time and time again for the in-creased delays and interruptions of the service. Can anyone really expect controllers, unable to pay their bills, watching their personal life go-ing down the drain and frustrated by misman-agement at administration and national level, to concentrate on the traffic anymore?
TC: Is there any way out of this?FD: I can only hope that the warnings are clear enough for International Aviation Com-munity! The Eurocontrols, EASAs, ICAOs and Commissions of this world have been made aware a long time ago, but have apparently chosen to completely ignore the problems so far. They need to act now, before something irreversible, like an accident, happens.
Frederic Deleau, IFATCA European FAB coordinator, has close personal ties with Greece and elaborates on the impact on colleague Air Traffic Controllers.
TC: How is the Greek financial crisis affecting the controllers?FD: As you most probably have already heard via the media, the situation is cata-strophic! The increasing unemployment, salary cuts, new taxes and various measures announced nearly on a daily basis, have as good as wiped out the middle class. People are desperate and the majority don’t know what tomorrow will bring… This of course af-fects our colleagues as well. Their situation was quite bad already. When the crisis hit in full force, a bad situation for the controller simply became even worse.
TC: Why is Greek ATC in such a bad state?FD: Despite European regulation, regulation and service provision in Greece are still man-aged by the same entity: the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA). This has enabled the government to use a large portion of the route charges for other purposes than for service provision.
Just one example: when state-owned Olym-pic Airways went bankrupt in 2009, hundreds of redundant employees were transferred to the Greek Civil Aviation Administration, with a guarantee of income. Someone has had to pay for all this…
Despite a traffic increase of more than 25% in 3 years, the HCAA’s budget has reduced by more than 55% in the same period... Greece has ‘managed’ to reduce the unit rate and that seems to have been the only perfor-mance indicator of interest to the airlines.
TC: Has this been flagged by the Greek association?FD: For the past years, the Greek Air Traffic Controllers’ Association (GATCA) have con-tinuously lobbied every level of national and international bodies, warning them of the catastrophic direction Greek ATC was head-ing in. But this has had little or no effect.
TC: How does this affect daily work for a controller?FD: They are at breaking point. There’s hasn’t been any refresher training for the past years. Only a minority of controllers has
4 The Hellenic Parliament in Athens has been the scene of protests for months.
Photo: © Kpikoulas | Dreamstime.com
cal, simulator and “on the job” training for the various forms of ATM. The regulation introduces 6 different ratings, which break down into the specificities of the various ser-vices offered. As an example we recognize three major categories of services commonly known in ATM as (Aerodrome, Approach or Terminal and En-route). To make things even a little bit more complicated for the reader and maybe also from an administrative point of view, each of the ratings has a set of spe-cific endorsements: for example, in the case of Aerodrome, additional endorsements are Tower, Ground Movement, Ground Move-ment Surveillance Air or Aerodrome Radar.
The directive also acknowledges that the li-cense should not automatically be linked to the ATCO’s involvement in safety incidents: revoking a license should only be seen as the last resort in extreme cases. These ex-treme cases however are not defined. One of the elements of the Single European Sky is the Safety Pillar and the notion of just cul-ture. The fact that this is mentioned in the Implementation Regulation can only be applauded.
From a social partner or collective bargaining point of view, the license should not be used to circumnavigate national or company social partners arrangements.
Throughout the text, the importance of lan-guage proficiency is stressed. It directly links to the ICAO globally led initiative on lan-guage proficiency, which has become man-datory SARPS. From an IFATCA perspective however, this has not been successfully trans-posed in many states around the world. Even in the EU, some states, for mainly economic reasons have Ministers of Transport declar-ing that thousands of ATCOs are compliant with the language proficiency, whereas in re-ality no evidence of this has been provided (no exam, no training etc.). With the imple-
4 Europe
EUROPEAN LICENCE FOR CONTROLLERS
^ by Marc Baumgartner, IFATCA SESAR/EASA Coordinator
At last! The Air Traffic Control-ler (ATCO) license has become a European implementation regulation. It’s one of the im-portant foundations for the success of the Single Europe-an Sky. In particular air traffic controllers have been working hard to get to this point. The li-cense is covered by Implemen-tation Regulation 805/2011 and has come into force. In practice, all European Member States and associated States to the Single European Sky will have to transpose it directly into a mandated application. Mandating a European license of an air traffic controller rec-ognizes the importance of the profession and promotes har-monization. This gives to the European ATCO the rights and privileges associated with the license and lays the foundation to possible future increased mobility as envisaged by the European Commission.
Background After the decision to set up the Single European Sky in 1999, one of the important moves was to improve harmoniza-tion of the air traffic control-ler licensing scheme and the associated training and medi-cal requirements. Until then, most States were simply fol-lowing their own interpretation of ICAO Annex 1. Eurocontrol had laid the foundations for a Common Core Content with regard to training and licens-ing. Building on the initial work by experts at Eurocontrol level,
the Commission decided to elaborate this work into an EC directive.
All involved parties agreed that the ATCO directive would have to be integrated in the European Aviation Safety Agency’s frame-work. EASA was instructed to create a fast track approach for the ATCO license. Follow-ing an EASA consultation conference in the summer of 2010, a proposal was presented to all stakeholders. The final version of the directive was published on 10 August 2011 and came into force 20 days later – on 30 August 2011.
Analysis of the Text The preamble gives a good overview of the political ambition of this regulation by stat-ing: “in order to maintain a high uniform lev-el of civil aviation safety in Europe, to achieve the highest standards of responsibility and competence, to improve the availability of air traffic controllers and to promote the mutual recognition of licenses while pursuing the objective of an overall improvement in air traffic safety and competence of personnel.”
When successful, the implementation of the ATCO directive should reduce the frag-mentation of the current European ATM landscape. It furthermore recognises the important role the air traffic controllers play in maintaining safety at the highest level. It advocates incorporating best practices in training for air traffic controllers, based on ICAO SARPS and Eurocontrol work. It gives EASA the possibility to assess whether States comply with certification requirements, ac-ceptable means of compliance and guidance material. It establishes that the license is like a professional diploma, on which additional skills acquired such as unit endorsements and ratings, are recorded.
The specific rating training can vary from 3 – 12 month targeted training, with theoreti-
22
NEW REGULATION INTRODUCES A COMMON LICENCE FOR MORE THAN 12,000 CONTROLLERS IN EUROPE.
tion regulation means more administrative work, lesser possibility to have nationally differing system (e.g. declaring ATCOs language proficient – without the required training). This could however be benefi-cial in cases where the mobility or the dynamic provision of air traffic control across borders will require to have a common standard and confidence in the others system.
For the air traffic controllers in Europe, it is a major achieve-ment as their license can now be European wide recognized. ^
(the full text of this article was published in the July/Septem-ber 2011 issue of The Aviation & Space Journal, published by the Università Degli Studi Di Bologna) [email protected]
important given the continuously changing environment.
The directive also explicitly states that social partners have to be closely involved in all the work related to the implementation regu-lation at EU level and that for those states where there might be an impact on daily working practices of ATCOs, the social part-ners at national level have to be consulted.
In Conclusion Following the political initiative of the single European sky the need for a harmonized ap-proach to controller training and licensing has been put high on the agenda of the Eu-ropean Commission and has subsequently led from an EC directive to an implementa-tion regulation.
From a professional point of view this is to be welcomed and certainly the end result as being in force now is meeting most of the modern requirements and scientific results an air traffic controller can expect. For the competent authorities and as well for the ANSP, the introduction of the implementa-
4 Europe
mentation regulation in force such national derogation will not be possible anymore and that can only be welcomed.
Initial Training As indicated, the directive also establishes a specific training standard for ATCOs, based on the Eurocontrol ATCO Common Core Content Initial Training specification and ICAO recommended practices. Recognising that initial training is quite expensive, it is im-portant not only for controllers but also for Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP) to be able to rely on training provided by oth-ers. This becomes of particular importance in the mentioned case of mutual recognition of the license and possibly increased mobility.
Eurocontrol’s Medical Certification require-ments are the cornerstone for the medical requirements linked to an ATCO license. Medical class 3 shall be the applied standard, also these might be adapted in the future, within the EASA framework.
Further recognised is the need to keep the skills of air traffic controllers updated. This is
23
by Helena Sjostrom, SATCA President and Patrik Peters, IFATCA Dep. President. Del-egates agreed that fatigue management is a shared responsibility between employers and employees.
The final day of the meeting started with a Critical Incident Stress Management presen-tation by Patrik Peters. Benefits and limita-tions were highlighted in another following lively discussion. In a second presentation on the topic of ‘How to deal with the media in case of a crisis’, Patrik Peters touched on the do’s and don’ts the spokesperson of an as-sociation should be aware of.
The meeting ended with a show of apprecia-tion for the great hospitality of the Curaçao ATCA. It was well organized and a truly friendly and enjoyable meeting in the Carib-bean style. A farewell dinner with live music and dancing marked the end of the 22nd AMA Regional Meeting. Unfortunately, the venue had to change at the last minute to escape the tropical rain! ^
4 Americas
IFATCA AMERICASREGIONAL MEETING 2011
Willemstadt on Curaçao, for-merly part of the Netherlands Antilles and since 10th Octo-ber 2010 a constituent coun-try within the Kingdom of The Netherlands, played host to the 22nd Americas Regional Meeting. Participants were greeted by tropical rain and warm temperatures. In total 45 delegates from 13 regional IFATCA member associations, as well as from the Swedish as-sociation SATCA, the furthest traveler, took part in this 3-day meeting.
The global IFATCA seminar (see the article on page 13) filled the first day of the meet-ing, which ended with a wel-come drink on the (man-made) beach at the venue hotel.
The second day began with the traditional opening ceremony
and speeches by honorable guests, including the Director General of the local air naviga-tion service provider NAATC, Mrs Micilia Albertus-Verboom and the IFATCA Americas Regional Vice-President Mr. Ignacio Oliva Whiteley. Following the usual acceptance of minutes from previous meetings, most of the day was used to learn of the various problems member associations were facing in their own country or with their employers.
A problem heard several times was that cer-tain deficiencies were reported by controllers to their management, but little or no action was taken to solve those problems. Accept-ance of responsibilities was at times shifted between service providers and regulators.
The meeting then heard presentations on ‘fa-tigue’ from IFATCA PCX Alexis Brathwaite, Greg Myles, CATCA President and Trish Gilbert, NATCA Vice-President. This was fol-lowed by a lively discussion, during which ad-ditional input from outside the region with regards to manpower planning, rest time allocation and leave planning was provided
24
22ND EDITION HOSTED BY CURAÇAO ASSOCIATION
^ by Patrik Peters, IFATCA Deputy President
4 Tower at Hato International Airport on Curaçao. Photo: PP/HS
4 IFATCA Deputy President Patrik Peters briefs the meeting on CISMPhoto: HS
4 View of Willemstad, the capital of Curaçao. Photo: PP/HS
ACTA Argentina and the official control-ler union, ATEPSA, are working together with the authorities to solve this conflict in a constructive way. Staff people from both or-ganizations explained that there were many other ways of solving industrial disputes without re-militarizing air traffic control. As one representative put it: “We’re very sad and disappointed, but we are confident our government will withdraw this decree in the future. ^
4 Americas
After President Néstor Kirchner decided in 2006 that air traffic control should be fully de-militarized by 2011, his widow – current Argentinean President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – reversed that decision by signing a decree on November 13th 2011. She re-turned the national air traffic control service to the responsibility of the Argentinian Air Force.
After some heated discussions between un-ions and management, a number of control-lers planned industrial actions due to start on Nov 11, 2011. The Argentinean govern-ment reacted harshly. Without warning, they issued a decree ordering the Argentinean Air Force to take over the country’s airspace and air traffic control in order to prevent the planned industrial actions.
A number of punitive steps were taken against the union and the controllers: initially, the Civil Aviation Authority had made a list of 12 controllers who were, according to them, directly responsible for the social unrest. The plan was to fire these individuals. On taking over, military authorities expanded that list immediately to over 40 controllers, who were labelled as disruptive and tagged for imme-diate dismissal.
A controller reports (anonymously for obvious reasons): “We as controllers are really disap-pointed, very nervous and stressed. Most of us are unable to do our job due to the stress this situation brings. We thought that this was ancient history and all of a sudden, this night-mare returns just before the start of the peak season, less than a month from now!”
As replacements for the controllers that would be fired, the Air Force has planned to call upon retired controllers, which are no longer in active duty. Some of them have not worked as controllers for more than 6 years.
25
ARGENTINA REINSTATES MILITARY RULETURNING THE CLOCK BACK 5 YEARS…
^ by Philippe Domogala, Deputy Editor
4 Archive photo of Buenos Aires airport, still opera-ted by the “Fuerza Aerea Argentina”Photo: DP
4 Controllers protesting the decree that returns them to military rule.Photo: ATEPSA
The Aeronautical Technicians Asociation (APTA) filed a lawsuit against De-fence Minister Arturo Puricelli. The lawsuit claims that the official had “appoint-ed untrained and unqualified personnel for the task and prevented airspace supervisors from working, ignoring the fact that their work is essential for air safety.” It also says that airport operations were under the control of “military personnel who had not worked in those function for two to eight years, did not have the necessary experience, nor the professional skills essential to the job.”Source: Buenos Aires Herald.
Commenting on the escalation on behalf of the government, Argentinian Defence Minister Arturo Puricelli stated that the air traffic controllers who went on strike on November 11th should “take so-cial responsibility” for their actions and get back to work. Puricelli labelled the protest a “boycott” and says the disruption to the service “happened for no reason”. Source: Buenos Aires Herald.
The controllers’ association is collecting sig-natures from ANAC employees, requesting the President to change the decree. Their aim is to get at least 2500 colleagues to sign. On No-vember 13th, the Air Force closed the airspace at 2030UTC, citing of “security reasons”. It’s not quite clear what these reasons were, as the situ-ation in the ACC was calm. They were forced to reopen it again after half an hour. 4 Entrance to the ACC, guarded by
military personnel. Photo: ATEPSA
4 Argentinian Defence Minister, Arturo PuricelliPhoto: mindef.gov.ar
SOME REACTIONS
4 Africa & Middle East
^ by Keziah Ogutu, IFATCA EVP Africa & Middle East
The Africa and Middle East (AFM) Regional Meeting was held in the beautiful coastal city of Dakar, Senegal from October 26th to 28th 2011. Del-egates came from all parts of the AFM region and beyond; twenty-eight member associa-tions were represented. Invit-ed guests included four inter-national organizations from the aviation stakeholders.
This year’s regional meeting was special as it also marked the celebration of IFATCA’s 50th Anniversary. In line with IFATCA’s slogan, ‘One Sky One Voice’ was chosen as the main theme. The IFATCA Exec-utive Board was represented by the President and CEO (PCX), Mr. Alexis Brathwaite and the Executive Vice President for Africa and Middle East (EVP AFM), Miss Keziah A Ogutu. Also in attendance at the meet-ing was the former EVP AFM, Mr. Hisham Bazian of Jordan.
Sponsored by nine organiza-tions, including Thales, ASEC-NA, The National Civil Aviation Agency of Senegal (ANACS), Senegal Airlines, Senegal Tours, Airport International Blaise DIAGNES, Aeroports Du Senegal (ADS), and Senegal Handling Services, the meet-ing was well organized. Speak-
ers came from ITF, IFALPA, IATA, ASECNA, ARMA and some of the sponsors. In addition to this, member associations presented a number of very informative and challenging working papers. The meeting was officially opened by Mr. Boubacar Camara, the Senegalese Secretary General of the Ministry of International Co-operation, Air Transport Infrastructure and Energy on behalf of the Minister, His Excel-lency Mr. Karim Wade; he was accompanied by a number of government officials, the CAA and the ANSP, ASECNA.
The HighlightsDay one was allocated to the IFATCA Semi-nar; delegates were taken through the aims, objectives and future plans of IFATCA in the topic ‘Why IFATCA?’ by the IFATCA PCX. Later in the day, the ITF representative, Mr. Nazi Kabore, gave a presentation on how to productively engage with management. This topic was dear to the hearts of many of the members present at the meeting. The talk highlighted how member associations either through their unions or professional bodies can have successful cooperative interaction with their management. Following this ses-sion, the delegates resolved to urge MAs to inform IFATCA and ITF on issues that affect them well in advance, so as to receive profes-sional advice. It is hoped that this can reduce the number of strikes that may be seen in fu-ture in the region.
Day two was equally interesting with pres-entations from IATA, ASCENA, IFALPA, and Member Associations. Highlights included a resolution to request IATA to assist with co-
26
DAKAR, SENEGAL OCTOBER 26TH TO 28TH
AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST REGIONAL MEETING 2011
ordinating with her member airlines through IFATCA in providing controllers in the region with familiarization flights; the establishment of a regional fund which will help promote the plans of the region and assist one another; the resolution that MAs should work towards actively providing information to IFATCA con-cerning the developments in air navigation in the region so as to influence the decisions made at the ICAO Air Navigation Commis-sion meetings; the request to the CAAs to harmonize ATM equipment in the region; the request for IFATCA to approach the Civil Avi-ation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (CASSOA), a branch of the East African Com-munity that deals with civil Aviation, to allow IFATCA representation in the CASSOA Tech-nical committees; and finally a lively discus-sion on managing fatigue in air traffic control.
It was not all business: on the third day, the delegates got an opportunity to visit the fa-mous Monument of African Renaissance. This is a 49m tall bronze statue located on top of one of the twin hills outside Dakar. Later all enjoyed a lovely farewell dinner held in a beautiful beach hotel. The delegates who travelled after Saturday having stayed behind after the meeting got an opportunity to visit Gorée Island, a historical site reported as be-ing at one time the center of the West Afri-can Slave trade. They had a chance to see the Slave House with a door of ‘no return’ a place which played a major role in the history of west Africa.
At the AFM RM 2011 a lot of milestones were achieved and we look forward to following up on the recommendations and resolutions in the coming year as we cooperate with our stakeholders to uphold our theme ‘One Sky One Voice. ^
4 Africa & Middle Eastt
27
“One of those unachievable jobs” 5. What is the most unpleas-
ant situation for you in your daily job?
The absolute knowing that you have to be above average 100% all the time without any mistake or you will kill a bunch of people.
6. What would you change in your working environment?
Anything can help to reduce any kind of stress and pressure in our work.
7. What is the funniest thing that happened to you while being a controller?
I can’t remember something now, but once I start talking in the headset without insert the plug in the desk ☺ thank god that I have assistant to tell me, put the plug please.
1. Why did you become a controller?Since I’m young I wanted to do a job that mentally challenged me and gives me a lot of things, like self-confidence, good judgment, challenge to be better and better every day and the honor to serve my country, I never re-ally thought about doing ATC, thinking it was one of those “unachievable” jobs that you have to train for years and years to get. I was much pleasured to be Air Traffic Controller.
2. How is the training organized in your country?
The Basic Air Traffic Controller Course at one of the specialized Jordanian schools may take one and a half year, after you finish this course you will start your “On Job Training” to get your license, now either you continue in the Tower as a Tower controller or take the Ap-proach and Area Course Procedure and radar. These courses take from 2, 5 years to 3 years.
3. What do like in your job? The knowledge that what I’m doing every day keep thousands of lives safe in sky.
4. What is the current operational hot topic you have in your place of work?
That we are preparing to install a new radar system.
Jordan - FACTSPopulation: 6.5 millionGDP per capita: 5,300 USD
Bread 1 kg 0.2 USDMilk: 1 liter 1 USDCup coffee 2 USDTaxi 10 km 4 USDMovie Ticket 10 USD
To be a controller in…
JordanPhoto: DP
Photo: AN
Phot
o: A
CC
Service Provider Facts & FiguresName: Jordanian Civil Aviation Regulatory CommissionStatus: state Number Enroute ACCs: 1 Number int’l airports: 1IFR Traffic/Mvts per year: N/A
Name: Ahmad Awad NatourPlace of work: Amman, Jordan.Age: 27 years.House: owns his apartmentMonthly salary: 1700 USD all-inclusive, no overtimeMarital status: married and one daughter.Car: 2001 Hyundai
hera. Other panel Members were Mr Patrick Forrey, Mr Scott Sallies, Mr Willem Zuidveld, Mr Rob Peters of Eurocontrol and Singapore Airlines Capt. Jaffar bin Hassan.
4th NovemberThe Singapore Airline Pilots Association, the Hong Kong ATC Association and the ATC Guild (India) presented working papers on topics related to the Greener Skies theme of the meeting.
This was followed by the much-awaited ac-tivity reports by the member associations of Asia-Pacific Region who highlighted their ef-forts, achievements and concerns during the past year.
New Delhi, India was confirmed as the venue for the APRM 2012 and the Singapore ATC Association handed over the flag to the ATC Guild (India). The Sri Lanka ATC Association expressed its readiness to host the APRM 2013. Nepal briefed the delegates on the ar-rangements made for the upcoming IFATCA Annual Conference in Kathmandu.
There being no other business, the IFATCA EVPASP made the closing speech and de-clared the meeting closed.
Visits to the Singapore Aviation Academy and to the Singapore ACC were arranged for the delegates. A gala dinner accompa-nied by dances, cultural programmes, magic shows and general bonhomie followed.
This account cannot be concluded without mentioning that the ATC Association of Sin-gapore has set a very high standard by taking care of all delegates even outside the meet-ing hours. The Singapore Controllers did a fantastic job of taking care of the delegates. There were plenty of volunteers willing to go the extra mile to make everyone feel com-fortable. The delegates went back with lot of good memories, a wealth of knowledge and a great many friends. ^
4 Asia/Pacifi c
ASIA/PACIFIC REGIONAL MEETING 2011
^ by DK Behera, IFATCA EVP Asia/Pacifi c
The 28th IFATCA Asia Pacific Regional Meeting was organ-ised by the Air Traffic Control-lers Association (Singapore) at Singapore’s Hotel Holiday Inn from 1st to 4th November. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Towards Greener Skies: ATC’s Role in Eco-Friendly Aviation”. The meeting was of special significance to ATCA Singapore because the na-tion is celebrating 100 Years of Aviation in Singapore. With about 120 delegates from Member Associations of the Region participating, this was one of the largest attendances in the history of IFATCA APRM meetings.
1st NovemberThe first day was reserved for registration of delegates and a welcome cocktail in the even-ing. The delegates moved around the beautiful city in a relaxed mood before joining the evening cocktail where they interacted with delegates from fellow Asia Pacific mem-ber associations and guests from other organizations.
2nd NovemberThe meeting started on the 2nd with the open-ing session; the highlights being the cultural programmes representing the different mem-ber countries and the welcome address by the guest-of-honour, Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singa-pore, Mr. Lui Tuck Yew, Executive Vice Presi-dent Asia Pacific Mr. D K Behera and Presi-dent ATCA Singapore Mr. Mohamed Ansari.
After the mandatory roll call and confirma-tion of the minutes of the previous year’s meeting, IFATCA EVP Technical Patrick Forrey presented the report of the IFATCA Executive Board. EVPASP D K Behera pre-sented the activity report of the region. Capt K K Goh, VP (Flight Operations) of Singapore Airlines, one of the sponsors of the event, also presented a paper on the theme of the Seminar. A very informative video presenta-tion on 100 years of Aviation in Singapore tracing the history of aviation in Singapore was shown which was much appreciated by the delegates present.
Next were the Working Papers on the theme of the meeting presented by ATC Associa-tion, Singapore, CAA of Singapore, ASPIRE and NATS. Willem Zuidveld, Coordinator of IFATCA Global Environment Team, made an informative presentation on “Environmental Issues in ATM” to end the day’s proceedings.
3rd NovemberA presentation paper on “IFATCA & ICAO” by Scott Shallies, IFATCA EVP Professional giving an overview of the relationship be-tween IFATCA and ICAO started the pro-ceedings of the day. It was followed by presentations on eco-friendly aviation by EUROCONTROL, Thales, Singapore Airlines, Iran ATC Association, University of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the Sri Lankan ATC Asso-ciation, and the Malaysian ATC Association.
The day ended with a very innovative panel discussion on ATC’s Role in Eco-Friendly Aviation which was chaired by Mr D K Be-
28
SINGAPORE, 1-4 NOVEMBER
4 Dignitaries attending the ASP regional meeting.Photo: Singapore ATCA
4 Head table during one of the panel discussionsPhoto: Singapore ATCA
ht tp: //atc.gdsys.de
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cannot support such things as 4D trajectory negotiations and live weather data uplink. In third; that there are no real incentives for air-lines to equip new aircraft, and that it makes even less sense to retrofit older machines. It’s too expensive and there are no clear ben-efits (read savings) when they are equipped. And finally, the ‘Best equipped –Best served’ paradigm is still not resolved. It would seem unlikely that it can be implemented any time soon, if you ask me.
Cost-BenefitDuring the debate, a few interesting facts and figures came to light. For example, a recent
4 Technology
CANSO DATALINK POLICY CONFERENCE
^ by Philippe Domogala, Deputy Editor
This conference, organized by CANSO, was held in Am-sterdam from September 6th to 8th 2011. It was attended by around 90 high-level ex-perts from very diverse back-grounds. While this included service providers, most were from other parts of our in-dustry: Airbus, Boeing, SITA, ARINC, ICAO, etc… IFATCA was invited and I had the privi-lege of representing EVP Tech-nical and our Technical and Ops Committee, as they had
other commitments in Montreal that week (see box).
Nothing NewMost revealing at this event was to hear the same debates and questions in 2011 that I had heard in 1990 during my ICAO FANS-II meeting days – having been IFATCA rep to ICAO FANS in the nineties. Commonly heard statements then and now are things like “Anything ‘not invented here’ has lit-tle chances of being mandated in the US”. Second favourite is that a single data link standard is still not there yet. Even ATN’s VDL2 has now apparently shortcomings, as it
30
COMPLEX ISSUES HIGHLIGHTED AT CANSO EVENT IN AMSTERDAM
The price we do not want to pay as controllers is to become the human workaround for in-compatible technologies. Controllers cannot be used to mitigate design flaws in new tools. IFATCA advocates a single set of standards, adopted in every oceanic and continental airspace; and a global, harmonised CPDLC implementation. For the moment, IFATCA supports CPDLC VDL Mode 2 ATN and ICAO approved SARPS as the global stand-ard to aim for. ^
IFATCA wants a single set of standardsThe presentation was prepared by Jael Roustan from IFATCA TOC and delivered by Philippe Domogala. The key points were to remind the audience that Controllers should not be asked to compensate for design flaws by performing extra tasks, like determining which equipment is on board a/c, which mes-sages are sustained by which system, and having to maintain R/T voice read backs to cover persistent safety issues.
Basic oceanic and advanced continental data link services require integration.
Photo: CANSO
Photo: CANSO
While much more dominant, FANS1/A cannot sustain com-plex clearances and those cannot be entered manually either. Both SESAR and Next-Gen plan to rely heavily on full 4D trajectories, which require complex exchanges between air and ground. Since ATN can-not do that, conclusion must be that the medium to handle this does not exist yet.
A representative from Nav-Canada (Gander) summed it up nicely: “As ANSP and Airlines Operators, we’re just running behind technology; we’re not really defining what we need.”
ConclusionThis so-called “ Policy Confer-ence” highlighted the extreme complexity of Global data link communications to everyone. It clearly demonstrated the dif-ference between the old days (where you could buy a radar worth 10 million for an airport having 20 movements per day because it was good for safety and no-one questioned the costs) to today’s economi-cally run ATM: the truth is that there is no real business case for certain technologies such as complex datalink systems. This is especially so when look-ing at the short term, which is the only thing airlines are con-sidering: today, Emirates uses a cost-benefit window of 16 to 18 months.
CANSO wants to be the leader in forcing ANSPS to get their act together to get started and “get going with datalink”. From the reactions I heard, I doubt this will work. But I might be wrong… ^
or variation… There is no standard. If eve-ryone can agree on a standard, industry will be more than happy to build it! But they also warned that from finalised and frozen specifi-cations to delivery, it would take 3 to 5 years, depending on the complexity. So to start from scratch by developing those specifica-tions to having them certified and ready to be installed, a finished product shouldn’t be expected before 2018- 2020.
Aircraft ManufacturersFor aircraft manufacturers, the whole thing is a nightmare. Boeing argued that ATC doesn’t need to be so different from place to place. ANSPs shouldn’t ask for regional solutions, because that means equipping and training differently depending on the region. It means more cost and less aircraft equipped… Boeing warned that if proce-dures are not global, aircrew are more likely to make mistakes. This effectively means that Basic Oceanic and Advanced Continental da-talink services require a common approach and integration.
A global map showed that ATN is used only in a very tiny portion of the world’s airspace.
4 Technologyy
Eurocontrol study has shown that, in Europe, datalink can deliver 11% more capacity, but not much more. UK service provider NATS estimates in a recent cost-benefit assessment that the cost for the company of installing full ATN datalink in the UK would cost around 10 million EUR per centre (they have 2) plus an-other million euro per year to maintain – this includes training. In their most favourable sce-nario, which requires the majority of aircraft to be equipped, at best it would save them 10 controllers per centre. They conclude that they would never see a return on their invest-ment and that there’s no healthy business case for an ANSP to install datalink.
The AirlinesUnited and Emirates, 2 of the airlines pre-sent, also failed to see a good business case for datalink, unless ANSPs guarantee tangi-bles. These would have to come in the form of shorter routes, quicker turn arouinds and departures, less taxi time, direct city pairs, etc. Mandatory retrofits, ordered by the reg-ulator, could break the stalemate but Emir-ates warned that anything lasting more than 2 or 3 hours cannot be performed during a routine (“A” check) maintenance. This will result in it being automatically postponed to a “C” check. For an Emirates B-777, this is typically every 3 to 4 years.
Equipment ManufacturersThe message from the industry, represent-ed by Thales and Honeywell, was that they hadn’t been given collective requirements to build a global system. Every service pro-vider wants something different: some want FANS1/A only, some FANS + ATN, some ATN only, some want another combination
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Photo: Boing
Photo: DP
lot – see the box. It’s a magnificent aircraft to look at. This was the first prototype (ZA001) and the test equipment was still inside.
Less aesthetically pleasing, but very impres-sive nevertheless was the Airbus A400M. It’s mainly aimed at replacing the Transall
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LE BOURGET PARIS AIR SHOW 2011^ by Philippe Domogala,
Deputy Editor
comers were the stars of the show: the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Airbus A400M and the Solar Impulse.
I had the chance to go onboard the Boeing 787, visit the cockpit and have a chat with Mike Carriker, the Boeing Dreamliner Chief Test Pi-
Performance of the new Boeing 787 is
basically similar to that of the 767 or 777.
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Short Interview Mike CARRIKER, Chief Test Pilot B787
Philippe: How does the perfor-mance of this aircraft compare to others?Mike: It’s basically the same as a standard Boeing 767 or 777: cruising speed is mach 0.84-0.85. When fully loaded, it will cruise in the low 30,000ft flight level band. It’s maximum oper-ating ceiling is 41,000 ft.
Philippe: I noticed the aircraft is very aero-dynamic and has very fine wings. How is the speed reduction on final approach? Can we expect the same problems as with the 737NG (difficult to slow down)?Mike: No, the aircraft has very good speed reduction possibilities. The spoilers on this type are very effective.Philippe: What are the main positive points of this aircraft to you as a pilot?Mike: The cockpit and its interface are every pilots dream: the cockpit is very roomy and it has very large LCD panels. These allow very comfortable interaction with CPDLC applica-tions (for oceanic clearances etc,), the aircraft
Due to the 50th anniversary is-sue of The Controller, we’ve had to delay this report of the 49th Le Bourget Paris Air show. The show was held in June and among the 150 aircraft on dis-play, three long awaited new
is fully equipped for ADS-B and CP-DLC data link with VDL mode 2. The screens can also reproduce any Jes-persen map and we can superimpose traffic on it. For example we can see on the ground map other traffic provided they are using Mode S of course. ^
announced it had secured some 730 orders at the show, mostly A320s. The only way the economic crisis was visible this year was unfortunately through the greatly reduced number of flying displays this year.
In 2013 it will be the 50th edition of the world’s oldest and largest airshow. Undoubt-edly, it’ll be worth visiting again. ^
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(C160) and Hercules (C130) military transport aircraft. The performance of this brand new aircraft is very, very interesting and will prob-ably pose a challenge to ATC when fully de-ployed – again see the box.
The last star and the most talked about was Bertrand Piccard’s Solar Impulse. As fea-tured in this magazine previously, he plans another round the world trip: this time not in a balloon, but with this huge aircraft, roughly the size of an Airbus A340. It’s powered by 4 small electrical engines of 10 HP each (!) and uses nearly 12,000 solar cells on the wings to charge a large array of batteries. During its attempt to circumnavigate the planet, the aircraft will present quite a challenge for ATC: he will have to penetrate various classes of airspace in VFR and, depending on atmos-pheric conditions, will be frequently climbing or descending (e.g. at night). The aircraft on display in Paris had flown from Brussels on June 13th. It took off at 05:20 and landed at 21:00, taking over 15 hours to travel only 300 Km. This gives an idea of the challenge ahead! Due to the weather, including winds that were too strong, it unfortunately could not make flying displays but it was on display inside in a huge tent. At the end of the week however, the weather became more favora-ble and the aircraft took off for its trip back to its home base in Payerne, Switzerland.
As you can see from the photo, the show was a real success: over 350,000 visitors and over 2,100 exhibitors, an increase from the previous event 2 years ago. Airbus alone
It took 15 hours for the Solar Impulse to fly from Brussels to Paris, a distance of 300Km!
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cockpit with a side stick and LCD displays. The engines are monsters (11.000 HP each) and have peculiar opposite turning propellers. It can land on un-prepared, dirt runways. Except for Malaysia, most of the orders are coming from Europe; Bel-gium (7), France (50) Germany (53) Luxemburg (1), Spain (27) Turkey(10) and the UK (22). ^
Photos: DP
The Airbus A400M ATC Challenge!A huge beast (roughly twice the capa-bilities and payload of a C-130 Hercules) The challenge for ATC will be its oper-ating sped and altitude; it can fly up to 37.000 ft but max speed will be M.72! Its more economic cruise will be around FL320-330 at M.68. On the positive side, it can do very high rates of descent ap-parently. The cockpit is like any Airbus
CHARLIE
And then there is...
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erto Ordaz (Venezuela). This caused both engines to fall off, nearly separating them from the airframe. The pilots managed to bring the DC9 to a stop on the runway. No one was injured, the passengers disem-barked onto the runway and the aircraft was towed to the terminal.
Hugo Chavez, Venezuela President was reported (but not verified) to have posted the following on his blog:
„This accident has nothing to do with Ven-ezuelan Pilots, or the state of our Aviation industry here. This accident is a result of American treachery in sending us inferior aircraft to make us look bad.“
No more turkey drops in the USA!Controversy rages between the FAA and Yellville, a small town in Arkansas (USA). The town’s main annual event is the “Tur-key Trot”. There’s a parade, Miss Drum-stick and Miss Turkey Trot beauty com-petitions, but the main event consists of pushing wild turkeys out of an aircraft while overflying the town center. People on the ground try to catch them, in order to eat them later.
The organizers maintain that the turkeys can glide safely to the ground, so it’s a bit like parachuting. The FAA sees it as drop-ping animals (or anything else without a parachute) from aircraft, which is prohib-ited. The debate rages, or as FAA spokes-woman Lynn Lunford declared: “We could be talking about turkeys or boxes of pa-per. It doesn’t matter. If you throw some-thing out of an aircraft, it can cause dam-age to people or property on the ground. Our concern is always with public safety.”In this particular case, it would be more
Shortest Take-Off Distance and iPadsThe iPad is revolutionizing aviation in a way that no other bit of technology has done in recent years, perhaps not consid-ering GPS. Even the FAA got hooked on to it – I suspect that the big boss is a big fan of Apple and has one himself.
Every year in May, a short take-off-and-land competition is held in Valdez, Alaska. This year’s winner of the shortest take-off was 17-year old Bobby Breeden. He’s a student pilot from Virginia, who built his own airplane from scratch. In his aircraft, which looked a bit like Piper Cub (PA18), he managed to take off in 36 feet (12 meter)! Look at the video on http://goo.gl/2Bd4A
During the required pre-competition FAA check, it turned out that Bobby had forgot-ten the aircraft’s registration and airworthi-ness documents. This meant he would be barred from entering the competition. But someone back home in Virginia scanned the required paper and e-mailed them to Bobby’s iPad. He showed the scans to the FAA officials and the FAA officials allowed him to fly so long as he had the iPad on board!
Overheard on the frequencyInbound to Kennedy in the 1960s. Aircraft are lined up on the inbound radial via Ca-narsie and told to keep 210 knots.
Controller: “American 123, what’s your speed?”American 123: “210”Controller: “Scandinavian 456, what’s your speed?”Scandinavian 456: “210”Controller: “Air France 789, what’s your speed?”Air France 789: “210.”[Silence for a while. Then ...]Controller: “Well then one of you is a #*@! liar!”
Hard Landing and Losing EnginesAn Aeropostal Douglas DC-9-50, inbound from Caracas with 125 passengers on board, made a rather hard landing at Pu-
appropriate to talk about “turkey safety”: the birds seem to survive the drop and the landing, but it’s afterwards that things seem to become dangerous for them!
Apparently, the custom is nearly 70 years old – originally the animals were thrown off a building in the town square. Miss Turkey Trot 2011 was not available for comment…
Low Costs RepairsMore and more photos, taken by passen-gers, showing duct-tape repairs on aircraft are surfacing on the internet. The concept of low-cost airlines appears to be spread-ing to low-cost repairs. It’s not a new thing however: during the Vietnam war, the US Air force relied heavily on something simi-lar – called “high-speed tape”.
Since cost reduction is all the talk in ATC these days as well, it’s only a matter of time before duct tape repairs start surfacing in your operations room, towers or radars. If it does, send us a photo! ^
Photos: Internet
Amsterdam52° 21’ 0” N / 4° 55’ 0” E
Johannesburg26° 12’ 0” S / 28° 5’ 0” E
Washington47° 23’ 30” N / 121° 34’ 14” W
Bangkok13° 45’ 0” N / 100° 31’ 0” E
Abu Dhabi24° 28’ 0” N / 54° 22’ 0” E
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