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Aviation Group
Prospect response to CAA Consultation on RP3 (CAP 1593)
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Prospect, ETF & ATCEUC Launch their Airlines 4 Europe Campaign
Prospect’s European affiliate ETF, together with ATCEUC, representing the vast majority of ATM workers in Europe, today launch a campaign against Airlines 4 Europe (A4E). As members will no doubt be aware, A4E (an airline lobby group) are vitriolic in their condemnation of ATM staff, and are lobbying heavily against the right to strike. This cannot be allowed to continue. As part of their lobbying, a report commissioned by them and compiled by PWC attempts to crudely demonstrate the disproportionate impact of ATC strikes. This is strongly rebutted by an excellent counter report provided by Prospect’s own research department (see below). This report sets the record straight, and clearly demonstrates that actually ATC strikes cause less than 1% of total delay. It is in fact airlines themselves that cause over 50% of delay, a fact they continue to suppress.
A press conference has been held today in Brussels to set the record straight and to counter the ‘fake news’ being peddled by the airlines, in the interests of boosting their own profits. The report is linked below together with a short video explaining the issues.
For updates please monitor and support the ETF ATM Committee Twitter and Facebook pages, and the ATSS Branch Twitter feed.
Prospect launches ‘Sustainable Aviation Policy’ document
After extensive research, Prospect last week launched its new policy report: “Towards a sustainable aviation industry for the UK”
The document draws on the experience of air traffic controllers, air traffic systems specialists, licensed aircraft engineers and CAA staff in Prospect’s membership. The policy document arose from a piece of work undertaken after a motion at the 2014 Prospect National Conference submitted by ATSS Branch which called upon Prospect to seek to influence Government and higfhlighted the lack of a “joined up sustainable aviation policy and strategy for the UK.”
To promote the new document, Prospect held a fringe event at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Brighton at the beginning of last week.
Coinciding with the launch of the policy document, a seminar of the Aviation Group of Prospect branches was held at the Flybe Training Academy in Exeter, at which ATSS Branch was well represented. A number of external speakers, including NATS Director of Safety, David Harrison and Professor Peter Turnbull of Bristol University contributed to the event.
Among the conclusions reached, Prospect has called for the UK’s aviation regulator to be split up, in a letter to transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin, amid concerns that safety is no longer its paramount concern.
Steve Jary, Prospect national secretary, writes: “We have come to question the combined responsibility for both economic and safety regulation in the CAA. We are not convinced that this is a good idea in principle…
“…there is growing evidence that the CAA is struggling to reconcile these responsibilities with the result that its historical focus on safety is becoming blurred.”
The 29-page report from Prospect highlights the regulator’s light-touch “top-level principles” for general aviation – which make no reference to safety – as well as the increasing prevalence of the budget airlines’ “flags of convenience” model, with its emphasis on avoiding tight regulation.