Why airlines blaming air traffic control for delays often isn’t true and other secrets from the tower
An air traffic controller reveals one of the common reasons that airlines will state for delays - that often isn't true
HOW many times have you been on a flight when staff have blamed air traffic control for it being delayed?
It's emerged that this is just an excuse for any number of things that could have gone wrong.
Sun Online spoke to Pete Glass, National Air Traffic (NATS) manager of air traffic control at Heathrow.
He has been a controller since 2001 and joined Heathrow earlier this year.
Pete told us: “Don’t believe airlines when they say there’s a delay with air traffic control. It’s not always the case.
“I wouldn’t say that staff on the plane are lying, but it’s a generalisation."
He continued: “The actual delay could be one of 20 or 30 different reasons.
“There haven’t been any delays put on at all this year at Heathrow because of air traffic control staff.
“We’ve had no problems with staffing and we’ve delivered the service 100 per cent of the time.
“There have been some delays, but not driven by us being short on staff. They are driven by the amount of aircraft that want to take off.
“Eurocontrol, the central European body responsible for monitoring air traffic across Europe has to put some regulations on, so there are sometimes delays from their end.
“Or there could be a problem with the aircraft. It tends to be that air traffic control gets the blame, but it’s a generalisation and an easy excuse to make.”
While air traffic control’s job is to communicate with pilots about landing planes, one thing that’s not allowed to happen is any joking about when they are in contact.
Pete said: “It doesn’t happen. There are so many aircraft we’re communicating with - between five and 15 aircraft at a time - so we have to keep it standard.
“It’s very much just a transmission, before we move onto the next time. There’s no time for a casual chat.”
If you want to earn up to £100,000 and get four-day weekends then you might consider training as an air traffic controller – and you won’t even need a degree from uni.
Pete told us: “A trainee controller will earn around £17,000 to train and then up to the high £20,000s when they have been placed in a unit.
“From there there’s a banded pay structure up to £100,000."
He continued: “It’s a highly skilled job. For every 3,000 people who apply at the college, only 26 people actually make it through to the course – there are that many dropouts.”
But Pete revealed: “That being said, you don’t need a university degree to get the job. You’ll just need five GCSEs at A* to C, including maths and English, and then A-levels or their equivalent to examination level – you don’t require grades.
“We get many people joining us when they are 19 or 20 and they get all the training that they will need.”
But that doesn’t mean that it’s an easy job – and there is rigorous training in a set of niche skills that controllers need to do their job.
Pete said that a lot of work is done on spatial recognition, which is decision making.
He said: “We pick people depending on how their brains function. Can you make a decision in an appropriate amount of time? This is very important when it comes to controlling when planes will land."
MOST READ IN TRAVEL
He continued: “The job involves looking at a 2D display screen and mentally translating it into a 3D image and not everyone can do that – that’s why we don’t focus on educational qualifications, it’s about your abilities and capabilities and how you think.
“You are looking after the lives of thousands of passengers every day. I wouldn’t say that it is a stressful job, but it is pressurised.”
Sun Online Travel previously revealed the films that have been filmed at Heathrow - and where you might spot A-listers there.