ATC Guild writes to headquarters seeking clarity on working hours

Air Traffic Controllers’ Guild Western Region has written a letter to headquarters, seeking clarity on working hours of Air Traffic Controller officials (ATCOs) in the wake of Airport Authority of India’s latest circular on duty hours.

Accordingly, the guild, in its letter dated April 10 (to which The Asian Age has access), said, “Since Mumbai ATCOs are bound to perform 18 hours of extra duty per month, the effective number of hours of duty per week by a Mumbai controller would go up to 45 hours, which in turn would be a serious health and safety hazard.” The letter further said that now onwards, a controller will have to work consecutively for at least 15 days without any break in terms of days, and that goes totally against measures taken by the AAI over the years for fatigue and stress management for enhancing air safety.

Earlier on April 6, AAI had issued a circular to all India Air Traffic Controller officials (ATCOs), informing them about the new five shift roster pattern of two additional duties of six hours each on two clear off days in a month, stating that weekly working hours of ATCOs in India were less than the world average. AAI had written to all general managers of air traffic management about shortage of air traffic managers. In the circular, AAI had said that in order to address this shortage of ATCOs, the controllers would require to perform two duties (each of six hours’ duration out of the six clear offs). These duties would be treated as part of normal duty hours. During the safety oversight audit, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (the Indian Civil Aviation regulator) pointed out to the ICAO team that working hours of controllers in India were less than the world average and this too had resulted in the shortage. Average working hours per week in cities like London and New York are 40. Australian air traffic controllers work for 72 hours every fortnight whereas in Europe, maximum load on a controller is 25 hours as they don’t have night flights.

According to sources from Mumbai airport ATC however, “Mumbai ATC needs a total 325 controllers and we have 260 to 280 in staff, now. Earlier this year in January, AAI put up an ad asking for admission in the department from retired army personnel. In the fourth week of March, a total 160 personnel finished their training and almost 50 joined the city, but the problem continues as the air traffic in the city is increasing every day,” they said. Air traffic controllers need to keep a close eye not only on the runway but also the radars and flight status monitor screens, which is a very hard task.

ATC sources said that Mumbai ATC had seven to eight departments and officials were supposed to keep an eye on 30 to 35 sectors every time.

“They have to talk to pilots, guide about take-off and landing, keep a distance between two operations and keep an eye on flying objects at the city airport. They also have to check flight radar and fill details manually in the flight status software about landings and take-off,” ATC sources informed.