AENA says covert strike to blame for plane delays
Valencia and Alicante airports are reporting an average delay of about 40 minutes in their operations, due to the absence of four air traffic controllers, of the eleven scheduled to work yesterday and today, two of them having refused to work other than union hours, according to Aena, the company which runs Spanish airports and airspace.
As well as these four ATC´s, an general operator who is on mandatory overtime failed to turn up for her shift, aggravating the issue.
Aena said in a statement that the refusal of ATC´s to discuss issues with overtime, in breach of the commitment they had agreed to in the document signed on August 13, which staved off a summer ATC strike, causing air traffic delays that result in disruptions to passengers travel plans.
USCA (the ATC union) sources have explained that after consultation with Alicante airport they refused to believe there had been an impact on passengers, and blamed delays at Valencia on AENA's “poor planning and insistance upon ATC´s working to their limits”.
“There were problems in Valencia, where eleven people were initially unable to work, although finally eight turned up. There was a paternity leave, one had a knee operation, another for legal guardianship, and disability since the summer, plus two with obligatory union leave, explained said the same sources.
They have also pointed out that the Valencia airport requires three ATC groups to cover all its airspace and as only seven people are at the tower, Valencia has only been able to open two of its three airspaces.
“AENA program to the limit. Then, when one person is unable to work, they have to resort to overtime and they have not been able to afford to hire interim. The staff is overstretched, but we are working well, and any blame for delays is due to the AENA´s personnel program which refuses to hire enough staff to cover with unexpected absences” said the USCA spokesman.
On Friday, the first day of the three day holiday weekend, the Union of Air Traffic Controllers Association (USCA) published a statement asserting that “no problems” would ocurr during these days and said it had done everything it could to ensure a “perfectly normal day” at Spanish airports.
The union denied “categorically” that would make a covert strike and rejected “any pressure on the passengers.” “Air traffic controllers are very committed to our work and rule out any means of pressure against the passengers,” he added.
“Once again Aena is misleading the public. Aena is accusing us, saying this is a covert strike, but the reality is that it is AENA who is blaming us for normal ocurrences in order to prevent passengers who are delayed from blaming the airport operator”.