Snoozing China air traffic controllers force jet to delay landing

A Chinese aircraft was forced to delay its landing after two air traffic controllers nodded off, reports said on Tuesday (Aug 19), sparking a wave of online anger about airline safety.

The Boeing 737 was preparing to land at Wuhan airport in central China but had no response from the air traffic control tower for 12 minutes, reports said. Contact was eventually made and China Eastern Airlines flight MU2528 from Sanya landed safely, the Sina.com news portal said.

"Because air traffic control was asleep on duty, (the plane) called many times," civil aviation authorities said in a statement quoted by Chinese business magazine Caijing. "But there was no reply, and no contact could be made with the control tower."

A separate investigation report cited by Caijing said two controllers had fallen asleep. The incident happened on July 8 and the statement was dated July 29. There was no explanation for the delay in making it public.

"Air control work is truly exhausting, but it is unforgivable to sleep on duty," a post on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, said on Tuesday. "Hundreds of people's lives depend on the actions of flight tower controllers. We entrust our lives to you," the post continued.

Another netizen added: "Such serious consequences. Should let him sleep as much as he wants in prison."

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Air traffic controllers' strike cancels flights in Portugal

A strike by air traffic controllers against cost-cutting reforms forced about 20 flights to be cancelled at Lisbon airport on Wednesday, officials said.

The cancelled flights included services between Lisbon and airports in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and northern Europe, the airport operator ANA said.

Controllers called the strike as part of a protest in several European countries against planned EU air traffic reforms which they fear threaten their jobs.

The strike would cause "long delays throughout the day," warned Carlos Vladrez, a spokesman for air traffic controllers of the national airspace operator NAV.

National airline TAP Portugal said it had rescheduled about 50 flights to try and avoid cancellations but delays were still expected.

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Indonesia to invest US$250m in air traffic management system

Indonesia's air space is getting busier. In 2012, there were more than 1.5 million flights in and out of the archipelago -- more than double the previous year.

It is a result of an unprecedented boom in air travel. The country saw double-digit growth in passenger volume over the last five years, but its aviation infrastructure has barely kept up.

The radar system, for example, has failed on several occasions at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport. Built more than 25 years ago, it was not designed to track 1,200 aircraft movements on a daily basis.

Captain Bambang Adisurya, a director at the International Federation of Airline Pilots Association, said: "This has been discussed many times at international forums. They've said the same thing.

"For example, their aircraft were put on hold upon entering Soekarno-Hatta airport. They've also lamented during our conversations that flying into Indonesia is always crowded."

Captain Bambang, who is also a pilot with Garuda Indonesia, felt that delays are inevitable -- a result of overcapacity at major airports.

Indonesia's are traffic controller has plans to ease the situation. It is investing US$250 million over the next three years for an air traffic flow management system.

It will help air traffic controllers compute, with precision, all aircraft movements in and out of Indonesia -- thus cutting down delays.

Amran, director of air traffic management at AirNav Indonesia, said: "In 2016, the time we implement initially the air traffic flow management, we aimed for a 15 minutes cut in delays for about 30 per cent of the total aircrafts. We expect that there will be 3,000 movements in that year. In 2017 for instance, our target is for aircraft to only face a two or three minute delay."

Indonesia used to have three air traffic control operators, each with its own system of traffic management. A series of air disasters five years ago led the International Civil Aviation Organisation to recommend that Indonesia use just one operator.

AirNav is now the only one managing Indonesia's air space. It is responsible for air traffic control in more than 150 airports across the country. That includes dozens of military air bases which are open for commercial use.

Captain Bambang added: "Jogjakarta airport is an example where it is also used by military planes for training. Its runaway and apron are quite narrow. When we fly into the airport, we've been regularly told to hold for up to 20 minutes because the air traffic is heavy due to military training."

Like several air bases in Indonesia, the one in Bandung, West Java, has been turned into an international airport. It now serves about 30 schedule flights a day -- in addition to military use and a private flying school.

The Indonesian government is rushing to upgrade existing airports and build new ones to accommodate over 70 million air passengers, a number that is still growing. This includes replacing out-of-date systems that could potentially cause accidents.

However, it require time and huge investments. So until that happens, travellers getting in and out of Indonesia can expect delays of at least 30 minutes, especially at major airports such as Jakarta.

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About time they invest some money into the traffic system with the congestion and growth rate they're experiencing. However, how much of this money will really go into the improvement of the system awaits to be seen, if you know what I'm talking about. 

Flight chaos as French controllers strike over EU airspace plan

Hundreds of flights in France were cancelled Tuesday as air traffic controllers kicked off a three-day strike against EU plans to create a single European airspace.

Controllers across the continent are due to stage various protests such as working to rule on Wednesday against what the European Transport Workers' Federation calls "a never-ending process of liberalisation, deregulation and cost cutting."

The day of action, which will involve staff in 11 countries, centres around a decade-long attempt to create a single EU airspace that controllers fear will cut jobs and affect work conditions.

France has been hit by two separate actions. Tuesday's strike was called by one of the controllers' main unions and will last three days, while other unions will join Wednesday's Europe-wide movement only.

Some 1,800 flights were cancelled Tuesday -- just under a quarter of the daily average -- after authorities asked airlines to cut some flights in advance to avoid mayhem on the day.

The situation is "on the whole quite calm in airports", said a spokesman for the Directorate General for Civil Aviation, France's aviation authority.

But Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair blasted the work stoppage, saying passengers were being "taken hostage" and calling on the European Commission to put an end to controllers' strikes after it cancelled more than 100 flights.

Air France, meanwhile, said it expected all long-haul flights from Paris would go ahead, but did not exclude "last-minute delays and cancellations."

The work stoppage is just one of the planned strikes in France this week, with railway workers due to stop work from Wednesday evening until Friday morning, and postal service employees expected to strike Thursday.

The air traffic controllers' main union, the SNCTA, called the three-day strike to denounce "the direct consequences on national policies of European constraints" on the sector.

Other unions that also represent controllers are planning to join Wednesday's protest movement to protest mainly against the "Single European Sky", which aims to bring management of European airspace under EU control.

Fragmented country-by-country air control is estimated to bring extra costs of close to five billion euros (US$6.6 billion) a year to airlines and passengers in Europe.

It adds 42 kilometres to the distance of an average flight as controllers are not able to manage more than a certain amount of flights at the same time, thus also harming the environment and causing delays.

By way of comparison, the United States controls the same amount of airspace with more traffic at almost half the cost.

The European Commission wants to redesign the EU's 27 national airspaces into just nine bigger sectors, saying a "single" European sky would improve safety ten-fold, slash pollution by 10 percent and reduce costs by 50 percent.

It will put forward proposals later Tuesday to speed up the reform, amid strong resistance from unions.

"The problem doesn't lie in the 'single sky' regulations that aim to harmonise air traffic management at a European level, we're for that," said Olivier Joffrin of the USAC-CGT, one of the unions involved in Wednesday's strike.

"What we don't accept is that the Commission use this to privatise and liberalise some activities."

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A strike which hits France rather than the usual Germany. This is the culture of the Europeans which you will hardly see in Asia. The ones suffering the most will be passengers themselves. Perhaps the Europeans should start changing the way they handle issues so as to come to solutions in a more amicable way.