The controllers are negotiating with PANSA. The specter of paralysis of air traffic over Poland

Wednesday is another day of management talks Polish Air Navigation Services Agency with the actors Trade Union of Air Traffic Controllers.

Tuesday’s long negotiations resulted in a certain step forward. As stated in the joint statement following the meeting, “a draft agreement has been drawn up on a large part of the issues and necessary measures to be taken in the field of security.”

However, the full agreement is still not valid, there are more than 130 notices on the table, and their term expires on April 30. So there are less than two weeks left Avoid staff disaster.

The dispute relates to the new regulations, which took effect at the end of last year. The Warsaw Area and Proximity Controllers Group, represented by the Board of the Air Traffic Controllers’ Guild, do not agree to the terms of work and remuneration.

at the end of March 44 people died Out of 208 auditors working in the capital. The fate of 131 employees is at stake During the notice period ending in April. If they leave, there will be only 33 area controllers and approach in Warsaw. At the same time, many of them were already on sick leave.

so what?

– Negotiations are underway. We hope that they will bring satisfactory results to both parties. PANSA spokeswoman Agata Krul I don’t want to draw black scenarios.

But the difficulties are there. A weekend at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport was marked by take-off and landing delays. The Civil Aviation Authority itself warned on Friday that “in the coming days there may be irregularities in air traffic over Poland, including flight delays and cancellations.”

a reason? There are no employees. Without a flight controller, air movement could not occur.

air traffic controllers Divided into area, approach and tower controllers. Those of the first two groups may not have been in Warsaw – they were the ones who sent their notifications.

What do these people do and what is the peculiarity of their work?

– area control They work in sectors of the highest levels of Polish space – there are most of the planes there, because they are also transit flights, and the machines move at full speed. Spatial imagination, the ability to predict and focus on individual planes appearing on radar, is especially needed. is similar to control ApproximationWhere the observer is in contact with the aircraft departing from the airport or departing for landing. control horoscope They monitor the situation at and just above the airport, so they give permission to take off and land and efficiently take care of taxis around the airport – explains Agata Król for Interia.

It also confirms that the job of an air traffic controller is a daunting task Anna Garwolińska-Glaubicz, representative of the Air Traffic Controllers Trade Union.

– This is not a push-button game. The work of the controller is to think and focus the maximum, no matter what time of day or night it is, it is work for 24 hours. In addition, it is a huge amount of specialized knowledge – says Garwolińska-Glaubicz. It states: Every year auditors undergo examinations and tests. They must be up to date with regulations, and be familiar with all types of aircraft – their parameters, technical capabilities, and weather tracking.

– And although they are not responsible for military aircraft and drones, they are in constant contact with them Military consoles. Even in February, there were cases of aircraft smuggling. How does it look? There was a tanker plane flying and two MiGs under its wings with responders turned off. He adds that smuggling of crude oil, to which air traffic controllers should be sensitive, is. So – he points out – negotiations with PANSA are taking place in the first place Safety.

But it’s also about Capital.

We want to establish the rules of earning. These actually start from the lowest national level, because that’s how much a person starts on a two-year course. As we calculated, in fact Their number is 33 thousand. Total PLN, that is, about 21 thousand. Network PLN – says Garwolińska-Glaubicz.

PANSA, in turn, noted that in Warsaw, the salaries of observers amount to an average organizational bonus With a total average of 33,000 PLN per month, and a maximum of 45,000 PLN. has increased.

Ask about minimum wages while training at the agency. The speaker acknowledges that the salary paid during the course is usually the national minimum wage, but explains it from a different angle. – This is an appreciation for students, because we do not charge for training, we also pay for course entry. It’s an attractive offer, considering putting pilots who pay for individual licenses out of their own pockets in order to finally land a cruise pilot job up the licensing ladder — says Agata Król.

PANSA is the only institution in Poland that has Trains and employs flight controllers. There are about 600 of them in our country – leaving a third of them threatens to paralyze air traffic. Of course, you can train new controllers, in March the recruitment for the first cycle took place after the epidemic break was completed. But all this goes on – the training itself is for two years.

Auditors point out that not having enough staff can lead to a decrease in security. Flights are checked 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

PANSA lives on fees collected from airlines for providing air navigation services to aircraft landing to and from Polish airports and those flying through Polish airspace. Two years of the pandemic Big travel restrictions have led to a lot Crisis in the airline industry.

The situation outside our eastern borders is not helping either – war in ukraine It had a significant impact on the situation in civil aviation in Poland. According to the agency, more drops in air traffic were recorded, and when there are no planes flying over Ukraine, Transit often bypasses Poland. In addition, there is military activity in the north-east of Poland, where a significant part of Poland’s sky is reserved.

Meanwhile, the Polish aviation crisis is directly intertwined with the situation of the Ukrainians fighting the invaders.

He’s also anxious during the weekend Jacob Karnofsky, As an independent member of the supervisory boards of Ukrzaliznytsia and Ukrposhta, that is, the Ukrainian Railways and the Post Office, due to significant delays at Warsaw Chopin Airport, the Ukrainian Post Office cannot continue to provide humanitarian aid to his country from the United States and Canada via Warsaw.

– Poland will be avoided, which is a big problem for Ukrainians – Says Interia. As he points out, Warsaw was most suitable for such operations for logistical reasons, among other things due to the Ukrainian Railways office operating there, which is directly involved in the transportation of humanitarian aid. Until now, shipments from North America went to Okęcie, and from there they were transported by trucks or trains towards the border with Ukraine, mainly to Medyka, and then by trains to Kyiv.