Shortage of ATCO's

Air Traffic Control (ATC), the important arm of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) that manages and regulates aircraft movement in Indian skies, has been facing a manpower shortage for some years now. However, the problem has become serious of late and repercussions are expected to be felt soon. ATC officials, who have been doing double shifts several times in a week to make up for shortage of staff, have refused to do so, effective March 14.

Though the move has not affected air traffic yet, officials say if things continue the way they are, simultaneous use of both runways could also be hit, upsetting air schedules and resulting in massive delays. Such a situation, said officials, arose just after the ATCOs stopped reporting for extra duties for about two days when simultaneous use of runways was suspended for a few hours each day.

AAI official V Somasundaram, however, denied the reports and said there could have been some confusion over the issue as the order that directed officials to put in extra hours was to expire on March 31. ‘‘The order however was renewed last week so there is no question of ATCOs not reporting for extra work. They have been very cooperative all this time and we have not faced any problems. Till the time we are comfortably placed as far as manpower is concerned, this order will be extended,'' he said.

ATCOs normally do six-hour shifts, but many of them were allegedly being asked to work another shift to make up for manpower shortage. According to sources, since the management did not want simultaneous use of runways affected, they had pulled out men from other duties and rostered them for tower duties. Consequently, several important services did not have a single person overlooking the work.

Confirming that such double shifts had indeed stopped from March 14, sources at the airport said refusal of ATCOs to put in extra hours could be pressure tactics they were using to have their demands of higher pay and less workload looked into. ATC has been suffering a massive manpower shortage for a few years and even Somasundaram accepted that with air traffic having grown and extra facilities being provided to airlines and passengers, pressure on the ATC was indeed a lot.

‘‘We have been recruiting extensively in the past few months but seeing the rate at which air traffic is growing, we need more people. However, extra duties are not the norm and only when someone is on leave and we need urgent replacement, we ask officials to work extra,'' he said.