Australia: Sydney's air traffic control 'at breaking point', disrupting flights

Air traffic controllers at Sydney Airport are so stretched that flights have to be restricted once a month on average as there are not enough staff to safely manage the congested runways. Amid claims the workforce has been stretched to breaking point, figures reveal an almost 50% increase in the total overtime hours worked by air traffic controllers at Sydney Airport over the past 3 years. That dramatic increase at Sydney Airport came as the number of overtime hours worked at other major Australian airports, and across Airservice’s operators as a whole, has fallen over the past 3 years. Figures show operations at Sydney were disrupted – with flights either delayed or cancelled – on 14 occasions in 2018 because there were not enough air traffic controllers available. That is up from 4 times in 2017 and 12 times in 2016. <br/>