[Peetwo]

Harfwit goes missing on ATC sickie concerns??

Via the Oz, courtesy that happy little chappie from Tassie, Matthew Denholm...

Air controllers’ sick leave has pilots asking is anyone there?

EXCLUSIVE
MATTHEW DENHOLM
TASMANIA CORRESPONDENT
@MatthewRDenholm

8:40PM SEPTEMBER 22, 2022


The air traffic control tower at Cairns Airport. picture: Brendan Radke

Regional airspace is being left temporarily uncontrolled by air traffic controllers due to “high-level unplanned staff absences”, disrupting aviation companies and creating “confusion”.

The Regional Aviation Association of Australia, as well as individual companies and pilots, told The Australian the problem had been occurring in the past few months across parts of Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia. RAAA chief executive Steve Campbell said the issue had been raised with Airservices Australia. “We’re trying to work with them to minimise disruptions to operators – there are frustrations and it is impacting,” he said. “As things ramp up for Christmas, you don’t want to be seeing this sort of thing. They want to hurry up and get their people sorted.”

Airservices has responded to a high sickie rate by restricting airspace, sometimes to only one plane at a time, and advising pilots to rely on Traffic Information Broadcasts by Aircraft.

Under TIBA, pilots must “self-separate” by talking to each other to monitor each other’s whereabouts in the absence of air traffic controllers.

A Qantas pilot told The Australian TIBA should only be used “as a last resort”, such as a fire or other emergency at an air traffic control centre, and not routinely to deal with staffing issues.

Mr Campbell said Airservices had advised him the practice was occurring “everywhere”. “It is not ideal – the smaller planes don’t have the equipment to see where they are and so it’s back to the old ‘see and be seen’ and ‘look out’ ­approach,” he said.

A post on an online aviation forum says a Jetstar flight from Brisbane to Mackay on August 2 was aborted rather than “deal with the TIBA airspace”, although Jetstar said it was due to weather.

Tasmanian aviation operators said there had been multiple TIBA periods in recent months.
An Airlines of Tasmania time-sensitive nuclear medicine supply flight was delayed on August 31 after approaches to Tasmanian airports were restricted.

The Piper Navajo had to circle Devonport for about 30 minutes, while waiting for another aircraft to land in Launceston.

A pilot school in Launceston has also expressed frustration to RAAA about disruption from ­periods of restricted airspace, Mr Campbell said.

Parts of Tasmanian airspace were again restricted on Wednesday this week, for 45 minutes from 8.45am at high altitudes, with ­reports of confusion among pilots and controllers.

Airservices said the use of ­restricted airspace or TIBA was ­always safe, and did not amount to closing airspace, which was still monitored. “When air traffic management services are temporarily affected, due to short-term, unplanned absences, we only vary the published level of service to ensure our targeted levels of safety are always maintained,” an Airservices spokeswoman said.

---

Pilots express safety concerns over disappearing air traffic controllers

MATTHEW DENHOLM
TASMANIA CORRESPONDENT
@MatthewRDenholm

6:43PM SEPTEMBER 26, 2022


AusALPA pilots union president Captain Louise Pole at Brisbane airport. Picture: Glenn Hunt

Pilots are concerned about the safety of increased reliance on uncontrolled airspace due to temporary air traffic controller shortages, blaming a 10 per cent cut in controllers since June last year.

As recently revealed by The Australian, regional airspace is being left temporarily uncontrolled due to “high-level unplanned staff absences”, disrupting aviation and creating confusion.

AusALPA, which represents more than 7000 commercial pilots, on Monday said the issue was unprecedented, worsening and increasing risks to the point some airlines were delaying flights.

Airservices Australia, blaming a high number of sickies, has been advising pilots in some regional areas to rely on Traffic Information Broadcasts by Aircraft (TIBA).

Under TIBA, pilots must “self-separate” by talking to each other via radio in the absence of air traffic controllers.

Pilots said TIBA was meant to be used rarely, as a “last resort” in emergencies, but had become “almost a daily occurrence” in some regions in recent months.

READ MORE:Uncontrolled airspace left crash pilots flying blind in Victoria|Qantas-Alliance deal may not fly as watchdog objects|Revealed: Qld’s biggest business deals this year
This has led to aviation delays in regional areas, notably Cairns, Townsville, Mackay and Rockhampton, in Queensland, Launceston and Hobart in Tasmania, and parts of Western Australian.

AusALPA president and Qantas Link pilot Captain Louise Pole told The Australian some airlines were delaying flights rather than operate while TIBA was in place.

“Today, I’ve just operated into areas where there is concern – Rockhampton and Mackay, areas surrounding those airports – and they are going in and out (of TIBA) for half an hour, sometimes three hours and as long as eight hours,” Captain Pole said.

“Some areas they consider to have a higher level of risk and so companies are not prepared to let aircraft go into that airspace.

“It (TIBA) means the workload for a pilot is a lot higher and that makes your job harder, and it does create more risk because you are not operating in a normal (situation).”

She said in 30 years of flying, she had not flown TIBA until two weeks ago, and had since flown it twice, most recently on Monday.

She believed the loss of 10 per cent of air traffic controllers under an early retirement scheme in the 12 months to June had led to a shortage of suitably skilled controllers in some areas.

Civil Air president and air traffic controller Tom McRobert said 120 controllers had taken early retirement under the program, reducing “resilience” to deal with staffing issues.

He said the scheme had arguably cut twice as many as was wise and this was the “root cause” of the use of TIBA.

“We are seeing more TIBAs in the last six months than I’ve ever seen in my nearly 20 years (in the job),” Mr McRobert said.

Airservices, which insists TIBA is a safe method of separating aircraft, said it had more than enough controllers and 65 in training.

“Our services have been varied less than 0.1 per cent of the total time this year despite the impact of the worst flu season in years and Covid-19,” a spokeswoman said.

“Like most organisations, Airservices has been impacted by Covid-19 and … flu … leading to short-notice, unplanned staff availability issues.”

MTF...P2