In a letter to the Chairman, AAI, K. Ramalingam (dated 7 th August 2008) — exactly three weeks prior to its implementation — the ATC Guild had outlined at least 14 drawbacks against the new system ranging from flaws in the training method given to Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) to insufficient number of available controllers to meet the number of sectors that had been proposed in the procedures.

“There were some issues raised about the quality of training that was being given to the controllers following which an agreement was reached that if ATCOs were uncomfortable with the new system, they can revert back to the old system until they become comfortable with the new procedures,” said D.K Behera, General Secretary, Air Traffic Controller’s Guild.

In its letter, the guild had pointed out issues such as non-availability of Arrival Manager (AMAN) software for traffic flow management. This would, in turn, mean that the sequence of arrival would have to be decided manually increasing holding time for arriving aircraft. In addition to this, according to an airport official who requested anonymity, Arrival Managers, a new post that has been created to cater to the new system, are also in short supply as they need to be radar certified and it’s a well known fact that ATC is short-staffed when it comes to Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs).

“The Guild is apprehensive that the management under pressure of the airlines and the airport operators will not pay heed to these sane suggestions and go ahead with implementation of these radically new procedures, thereby compromising safety and careers of ATCOs,” the letter stated. Terming the apprehensions as not baseless, the guild has taken the example of introduction of the simultaneous runway operations at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI). “This apprehension is not baseless, as can be seen from the earlier disastrous forced introduction of simultaneous runway operations at Delhi wherein Controllers were victimised by taking away their rating whereas the fault was with the faulty training and faulty SOPs,” the letter stated.

However, M G Jhungare, General Manager, ATC Mumbai, brushed away the matter saying that he had no knowledge of the letter. “The procedure has been established and whatever issues that might have been there would have been resolved. As of now PBNS is running smoothly,” he said. S S R Rao, Regional Executive Director, AAI, refused to comment.