[Peetwo]

Harfwit's AQON - And the answer is? - NO! 

Via the APH, weasel worded confections to Senator Canavan's Supp Estimates QON: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Bus...mates/rrat

Senator Matthew Canavan asked: 

a) Is there a current shortage of air traffic controllers? If so, how many? Do you have a plan to remedy the shortage? Does Airservices need more funding?
b) Is the shortage impacting the operating rate at major airports around Australia, including Sydney airport? 
c) Have we seen an increase over the past 12 months of regional airports that are normally covered by air traffic control reverted to ‘see-and-avoid’ principle? 
d) Prior to 2020 what was the average amount of overtime worked by air traffic controllers in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne airports? And what has it been in 2022 and this year?
e) What recruitment policies have been put in place to ensure that we have enough air traffic controllers to reduce safety risks? f) Are the amount of overtime hours that Air Traffic Controllers having to put in putting at risk the safety of aircraft in Australia? 

Answer: 

a) Airservices currently employs a total of 926 full time equivalent (FTE) operational air traffic controllers and requires 813 FTE to fulfil operational requirements. Airservices acknowledges there have been staff availability issues and is implementing a resource resilience plan which includes a recruitment drive. Airservices does not need further funding. 

b) See response at a). In regard to network performance at major airports, there are a number of factors that can affect network performance. To ensure greater visibility and transparency, Airservices is publishing daily reports on network performance at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth airports which is available here: www.airservicesaustralia.com/airservices-newsroom/

c) No.

d) Table 1 shows the average overtime worked by air traffic controllers over these periods.



e) Refer to response at a). A total of 44 ab-initio air traffic controller trainees have become operational since 2020 and a further 12 are expected to become operational by the end of June 2023. Another 80 are due to become operational in financial year 2024. Airservices is planning for ongoing annual recruitment of 80 to 100 ab-initio trainees.

f) No

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Senator Matthew Canavan asked: 

Precision Runway Monitor (PRM) was identified as the mechanism to ensure Sydney Airport was able to meet the agreed throughput rate, however, it is currently not being used. Airservices have previously stated that the reason is the trigger for PRM has not been reached. What is the trigger for PRM to be used is? With consistent arrival rates consistently reduced to below 37 arrivals per hour, is there a plan to commence PRM at Sydney Airport?

Answer: 

There are no specific triggers for PRM use. PRM use depends on runway demand, available capacity (including people, procedures and enabling systems/infrastructure) and weather conditions.

The maximum rate forecast for runway 16 PRM is 42 aircraft an hour and for runway 34 is 46 aircraft an hour. Dependent on the weather conditions, rates above 37 arrivals an hour can be achieved without the use of PRM. There are currently no plans to recommence PRM at Sydney Airport.

During periods with peak arrival traffic demand and marginal weather conditions, capacity at Sydney Airport historically can be maintained without the use of PRM operations. PRM is a highly accurate surveillance system which allows air traffic controllers to precisely monitor aircraft tracking on their approach paths and enables independent parallel approaches.

The Long Term Operating Plan for Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport and Associated Airspace specifies that PRM can only be used mornings on Monday to Friday.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) amended the rules for parallel approaches in November 2018, which came into effect in February 2020. This aligned with the cessation of PRM with the reduction in traffic due to COVID-19.

The new rules introduced a straight and level flight component for independent parallel operations, utilising PRM, that was not consistent with the airspace design for runways 16L and 16R. This constraint was not identified until traffic levels started to increase. There is no technical constraint on the use of PRM on runway 34. Though demand at Sydney is increasing there have been relatively few occurrences where the use of PRM on runway 16 or 34 could have been utilised to manage an increase in demand.

Airservices has reviewed the airspace changes required and proposed a change to the international rule set for parallel runway approaches. This will be considered by the ICAO Separation and Airspace Safety Panel meeting in May 2023.

MTF...P2