Most Spanish Air Traffic Controllers called in sick!

[regi]

The statement reads as a logical conclusion. But it carries some strange details.
Example: if the situation has come to normal by military supervision, it spreads the idea that the military should be responsable for this activity permanently. But nobody mentions the cost of this military intervention. We may not assume that the Spanish MoD has not prepared a cost overrun bill to send to the ministry that ordered their action.
Second major mistake is that this person compares profit figures of European airlines, which are private companies, with state activities.
I have repeated again and again that the sole purpose of a company is to make profit. That is basic economy. An army doesn't have to be profitable.
Positive in this statement is the call for a Pan European traffic control. But I have my doubts that this should be a company instead of an European organisation. Imagine which steps such a private company could take to increase its profit. I talk about safety.

[Phatius]

ATC situation in Spain for the airlines quite stable for now. Did a few flights over Spain this week, and except for the unwillingness to give any aircraft a short-cut, everything went quite well. (no severe slots, ...)

Although it has to be said that Madrid and Barcelona Control presented themselves over the frequency as 'Madrid/Barcelona Control under military supervision'.

Quite strange when you hear it for the first time, but if that's only the way we can transport our passengers, better that than the bad show we saw last weekend!!

Best regards,

Phatius

[sn26567]

A figure found in La Libre Belgique this weekend: Spanish ATCOs now (i.e. after the recent government decisions) make 17,000 EUR per month for a 32 hr Week.

[earthman]

Code: Select all

Concerning the "normal" amount of hours.. What is a "normal" amount of hours when you work at nights and week ends ?

A normal amount is 1620 hours a year, everything included (holidays, ...)(in Belgium). This amount is also used for nurses etc who works at nights and weekends. The spanish ATC have to work only 1000 hours, so add the overtime of 600 hours and they are still within the Belgian "normal" amount.

Greetz

My normal working week of 40 hours times 52 weeks is 2080 hours yearly. Granted I don't work nights or weekends. If I were to actually use up all my vacation days (of which I have an extremely royal amount) instead of having part of them paid to me, I end up at about 1742 actual working hours per year, minus 24 hours which are three holidays which always fall on working days => 1718 hours.

Spain, of course, is the country where everything will be done "mañana". Except for the Canary Islands, where it is pasado mañana.

[earthman]

In the Netherlands, ATCs have a 38 hour working week, with at least 25 vacation days per year. Night shifts once every six weeks, max. 3 nights in a row.

Once the training/schooling is complete, salaries are €75.000 to €120.000 per year before taxes. After the tax office is done with you, there is likely to be €41.820 to €61.176 left (this is based on calculations for general government employees, might be different for ATCs of course). Retirement age for ATCs is 58.

[sn26567]

RYANAIR TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST SPANISH UNIONS OVER ATC WILDCAT STRIKES

Ryanair, Europe’s favourite airline, today (13th Dec) confirmed that it will take legal action again AENA, AESA and the USCA Union responsible for the unlawful wildcat air traffic control (ATC) disruption in Spain on Fri 3rd and Sat 4th December which caused the cancellation of over 500 Ryanair flights, disrupting over 75,000 passengers.

Ryanair once again called for the EU Commission to remove the ‘right to strike’ from essential services such as ATC and to reform the EU261 passenger rights legislation which has again been shown to be unfit for purpose during recent ATC strikes in Belgium, France and Spain.

So far in 2010, Ryanair has been forced to cancel 2,500 flights and delay over 13,000 flights, disrupting over 2.5m passengers, as a direct result of Belgian, French and Spanish ATC strikes and work to rules. Under EU261 regulations airlines suffer the costs of these disruptions without any recourse against those unions calling strikes or the EU Govts who own the ATCs and repeatedly allow European airspace to be closed.

Ryanair called on the EU Commission to reform ATC services as follows:

1. Remove the “right to strike” for essential services such as ATCs.
2. Sack any ATC staff who participate in illegal strikes (as Ronald Reagan sacked and replaced striking ATC staff in the US in the 1980’s).
3. Deregulate Europe’s national ATC services to allow non striking ATC’s to keep the skies over Belgium, France and Spain open, while their overpaid, underworked ATCs go on strike again and again.
4. Reform the EU261 passenger rights legislation to relieve airlines of ‘right to care’ obligations in such force majeure cases which are clearly outside of airlines’ control.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said:

“How many more times will Europe’s airlines and their passengers be disrupted by unnecessary airspace closures, strikes and work to rules before the EU Commission finally takes some action? Striking ATC staff are the modern equivalent of highwaymen. They don’t care about consumers, they don’t care about passengers, and they repeatedly strike because they know they can shut down Europe’s skies and hold EU Governments and passengers to ransom.

It is unacceptable that Spanish Air Traffic Controllers, some of whom earn almost €1 million per year, continue to engage in strikes, go slows and work to rules, causing delays and misery for millions of European passengers without any financial ramifications. Ryanair will now take legal action against those responsible for the wildcat Air Traffic Control strikes which caused the cancelation of 500 Ryanair flights on the 3rd and 4th of December.”

Ryanair press release 12.12.2010