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The heads of Airservices Australia and Airlines for Australia and New Zealand (A4ANZ) are set to meet this week to discuss recent air traffic control disruptions.
Airservices CEO Rob Sharp will meet A4ANZ chairman Graeme Samuel following a number of staffing headaches at the national air traffic management provider, including a chaotic day at Sydney Airport on 15 January that led to extensive delays and cancellations.
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“[We want an] understanding about how these problems would be dealt with in the future,” A4ANZ CEO Stephen Beckett told The Australian.
“Airservices Australia has advised that they’ve recruited more people than they had planned to, yet still the national network can be brought to its knees because three people call in sick in Sydney.
“Perhaps some of the problems are beyond recruitment. It doesn’t sound like a particularly resilient mode of operation for a national and international aviation system.”
For its part, Airservices says it has been pushing “active recruitment, training and cross-skilling” to ensure greater resilience in the event of short-term absences like sick leave.
In a statement, an Airservices spokesperson said the meeting will “discuss how we are working to ensure the best possible level of service for operators flying in Australian-controlled airspace”.
“Airservices is in close and regular contact with industry at all levels to enable a collaborative approach to improving outcomes for the travelling public,” the spokesperson said.
Air traffic controllers’ union Civil Air has also raised concerns, with its president Scott Nugent confirming he met personally with Sharp and other Airservices executive management on Tuesday to “review the issues at Sydney Airport”.
“I am aware of the concerns that exist in Sydney Tower, but also across the wider ATC workforce across Australia,” said Nugent.
“While we acknowledge the training efforts Airservices has undertaken recently, Civil Air believes this must go further. Nationally, Airservices needs to increase staffing numbers to reduce reliance on overtime, mitigate Controller fatigue, and ultimately improve service outcomes.
“Civil Air maintains a continuous dialogue with Airservices management on these issues. We will continue to liaise with Airservices as well as numerous other industry stakeholders to ensure that the professional and personal wellbeing of our members is kept front and centre.”
Airservices reports that it has hired 91 new air traffic controllers over the past year, above its target of 85. Sharp said last year that staffing had returned to pre-COVID-19 levels, but was still “not where [Airservices] wanted it”.
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