Transport Minister Catherine King intervenes over Airservices controller shortage at Sydney Airport

After months of denying any shortage of air traffic controllers, Airservices Australia has embarked on a major recruitment drive.

Airservices has launched a recruitment drive for 80 air traffic controllers following months of denying any staff shortages.

After months of denying any staff shortages, Airservices Australia has embarked on a major recruitment drive for air traffic controllers to alleviate pressure on “hot spots”.

In an email to existing employees, chief service delivery officer Michelle Bennetts said she was writing to “acknowledge the resourcing challenges some of you are experiencing in your day-to-day”.

“I also want you to know we do have a plan to alleviate the pressure on some of our ‘hot spots’ as quickly as possible,” wrote Ms Bennetts.

“We have a system that has been under some pressure for a period of time now in line with the aviation industry at large.”

She went on to explain an external recruitment campaign was “front and centre” of this plan, with the intention of delivering 80 additional air traffic controllers by July 2024.

As well as newly endorsed ATCs, Airservices was targeting experienced recruits with Australian citizenship or permanent residency to bolster the operational workforce.

Prior to her correspondence, Airservices insisted staffing levels were adequate with “more than 900 air traffic controllers, 97 per cent of which are in operational roles”.

“Airservices requires about 800 ATCs to fully staff the ATC network,” said an Airservices spokeswoman on February 27.

The apparent change of heart followed public statements of concern by airlines and airports centred on staffing shortages at Sydney Airport that had led to almost daily runway restrictions.

Transport Minister Catherine King also raised concerns privately with Airservices’ chairman John Weber, and sought assurances the issues would be addressed.

Although her office declined to comment, letters from Ms King to Airlines for Australia and New Zealand and the Australian Airports Association confirmed her intervention.

Air traffic controllers’ union, Civil Air, welcomed the recruitment campaign, which followed “years of advocating” for imbalances in staffing to be addressed.

President Tom McRobert said the recruitment campaign would certainly help in the longer term, and showed Airservices had listened to their concerns.

“It’ll be interesting to see how many applicants we get, but we’re happy to see they’re recruiting,” said Mr McRobert.

“Internationally, there’s a bit of a shortage of controllers, and we’re all fishing from the same pond.”

Ms Bennetts pointed out that approximately 130 air traffic controllers who took advantage of an early retirement incentive scheme during the Covid pandemic would not be eligible to apply.

On Tuesday, an Airservices spokeswoman acknowledged there had been staff availability issues due to a number of factors.

“ (Airservices) is embarking on a recruitment drive to increase the intake of the number of trainees above our current workforce planning projections,” she said.

“This recruitment is part of future-proofing our service delivery to provide resilience in our rosters, and to provide for further increases in traffic as the aviation industry returns to normal activity.”

Base salaries for air traffic controllers started at about $100,000 and went up to $220,000, however with penalties and allowances average annual earnings were $215,000.

Airservices was also reviewing the effectiveness of its air traffic control training regime, which had “already resulted in an improvement in pass rates”.

A dozen trainees were expected to become operational by the end of June.

Originally published as Transport Minister Catherine King intervenes over Airservices controller shortage at Sydney Airport