Irish Air Corps to move to five-day week from June as Air Traffic Control crisis deepens
THE IRISH AIR Corps is to end 24-hour operations and reduce their service to a five day week in June as a crisis in air traffic control has reached a critical point,
The Journal
has learned.
Air traffic control for the Air Corps is managed from Casement Aerodrome at Baldonnel in southwest Co Dublin.
The controllers based there manage the airspace around the airfield, which can include nighttime operations by military helicopters, Garda aircraft and fixed wing Defence Forces aircraft such as those used to monitor maritime activities off the coast.
The Journal
reported earlier this month on
mounting fears that a shortage
of the skilled military personnel who work in air traffic control could lead to a partial shutdown of the service.
The Garda Air Support Unit (GASU) helicopter was operating at nearby Weston Airport in Kildare on Saturday.
It is understood senior Garda leadership are now looking at contingencies to find a new base for the unit away from Baldonnel. Air Corps pilots fly the aircraft and it is maintained on the ground by military technicians. Gardaí operate its surveillance systems.
Sources have said that the Garda helicopter can operate without dedicated air traffic controllers based at Casement in some circumstances.
However Gardaí are set to take delivery of a new fixed-wing surveillance aircraft which will need dedicated air traffic control to operate. Sources have said the most likely solution is to base the aircraft at Weston Airport.
As it stands, the Irish Coast Guard are also set to base their helicopters in the Kildare facility having moved from Dublin Airport.
There are concerns the cutting back in air traffic control hours at Baldonnel may lead to a lack of availability of military planes to provide 'top cover' – essentially, communication relay links – for Coast Guard choppers tasked with long-range missions.
British aircraft
have been used to provide that service on some callouts in the past.
It has also emerged that there is a plan to move the Maritime Patrol aircraft, the new CASA 295, to Shannon. While some security sources said that this may be a positive move as it reduces flight time to the Atlantic, it is necessitated by the Air Traffic Control crisis.
A PC-9 trainer passes the control tower in Casement Aerodrome.
Irish Defence Forces
Irish Defence Forces
Internal report warning
Separately
The Journal
has learned, from multiple sources, that a high level report was written in 2021 following meetings of a working group to find a solution to the gathering problems in the Irish Air Corps at that time.
One of the risks identified in the report was around Air Traffic Control provision. Sources have said that this report made recommendations such as specialist payments to keep controllers in the service but they were never acted on.
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The so-called retention payment scheme was offered to Air Corps pilots who are officers but not to air traffic controllers. Those personnel have been offered better pay and conditions elsewhere in civilian roles with a starting wage of close to €80,000.
There had been an offer to commission the enlisted personnel into the officer ranks recently.
The issues the report warned about have now come to pass and the Air Corps is now faced with the prospect of having to operate on
de facto
civilian office hours. Sources have said that there may be a way to operate an on-call for emergencies but this has not been decided.
Sources have said there are internal recriminations with a blame game beginning between the Irish Defence Forces and Department of Defence.
When contacted both organisations said they could not comment for operational reasons.
A Garda spokesman referred our query to the Irish Defence Forces but confirmed that the GASU 'is operational at this time'.
The Garda Air Support Unit helicopter.
Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
No quick fix
In the coming weeks four senior controllers will leave the Irish Air Corps and take up jobs in the civilian aviation industry – some of those will work in Weston Airport.
A senior source said that there is no quick fix – a suggestion has been made that basic training can be given to officers and emergency personnel in Baldonnel to act as 'Airfield Lookouts'.
This would enable Garda operations to continue at the base but the regulations are strict on this, particularly when there is bad weather which could limit operations without fully qualified operators in the Control Tower.
Bringing in civilian contractors has been done in the Air Corps in recent years, around the managing of operations at the airfield. Many former Air Corps personnel have returned to Baldonnel to work as civilians, managing ground movements of aircraft.
However the complicating issue with Casement Air Traffic Control is that the specialist nature of the way military aviation works would require time to train civilians up to the unique environment.
Multiple sources said that there are new pilot cadets due to return from their training abroad in the coming weeks. They must rapidly get flight hours in Ireland to progress but this will be limited because of the lack of air traffic control.
Many security sources have contacted
The Journal
to raise concerns about the crisis – some expressing barely contained anger about what has happened.
One exasperated source said: 'This is a single point of failure – Air Traffic Control is the bolt that holds everything together and it is broken and they can't replace it. It will take years to fix it.'
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