ATCEUC warning: Polish airspace may soon be closed due to lack of ATC staff.

joujoujou

We have warned the European Institutions, we have warned CANSO and the

airlines, that PANSAs was forcing its ATCOs out of the company by destroying

the safety culture and safety management system, drawing disciplinary

consequences against employees reporting irregularities, bullying the

personnel and unilaterally cutting ATCOs’ wages even by 70%

Source: http://www.atceuc.org/uploads/docs/20220328-pr-on-poland-issue.pdf

Polish news state that 175 out of 208 ATC staff decided not to sign new, "downgrading" contracts, some of them already ceased their employment, rest of the contracts will expire later this month.

Many flights are already delayed due to insufficient staff, here's a screenshot of live WAW arrivals taken just a while ago:

Just a heads-up, some holiday plans may be ruined if they not find a quick solution, which is unlikely.

Margaret Clarke

Shıt

joujoujou

Breaking news: temporary agreement has been reached.

In brief - current conditions will remain the same for a while, in the meantime negotiations will continue until (hopefully) permanent solution's agreed.

Deadline - 10th of July 2022.

AnRothar

Part of the difficulties for Poland can be traced back to the downing of MAS17 in 2014.

This resulted in the rerouting of many Aircraft flying to the far East.

Historically they tended to fly over Poland/Ukraine and on.

ATC funding has a structural weaknesses for historical reasons.

In very simplistic terms used charges are weight based and linked to distance flown.

Typical Aircraft overflying Poland to the far East were A330/B777 etc on long sectors.

While some traffic did recover for them it was typically A320/B737 on short European/domestic routes.

Double hit to the funding and locked in to their charges based on EU regulations things have been interesting for them.

Interesting times.

Side note ATC service providers have been looking for a different funding model to be agreed but not a lot has happened.

3d4life

Seeing the topic of funding ATC reminds me of

https://youtu.be/7KbUNzi58wM

Of course its old, not really on topic, and very naughty of me to post it.

Still, I think its funny........I hope you do too :)