Another Public-Private Enterprise
The BBC reports on the shutdown of the airspace over Southern England and Wales:
Friday: London airspace closed after computer failure
London airspace has been closed until 19:00 GMT after a computer failure, air traffic controllers have said.
The news was announced in a brief message on flight safety body Eurocontrol’s website.
UK air traffic controllers Nats confirmed a “technical problem” at its Swanwick control centre in Hampshire.
Today: Flight disruption: Air traffic glitch ‘not seen before’
In a statement, Nats said the number of workstations “in use” at its control centre versus “in standby” fluctuated with the demands of the traffic being controlled.
“In this instance a transition between the two states caused a failure in the system which has not been seen before,” it said.
“The failure meant that the controllers were unable to access all of the data regarding individual flight plans which significantly increases their workload.”
It turns out that the air traffic control system is at 98% of capacity, which is effectively full, so it can’t take any surges of data, like bringing more terminals on line. They have no reserve capacity and people are talking about adding another airport near London while the government is cutting positions at the current facility.
Converting the Nats system to a public-private enterprise has had the usual results of such attempts – it’s more expensive and less effective than the public system that it replaced.
3 comments
” it’s more expensive and less effective than the public system that it replaced.”
define “effective.”
if by effective you mean “transfers more money to the pockets of blood-sucking parasites” and “reduces the people’s trust in their government,” then . . . .
Your definition is exactly the problem of these ‘partnerships’ – the public supplies the money and the private injects the greed. 😈