In wake of JAL crash, air traffic controllers call for significant staff increase

Labor union wants more workers. Imagine that.

 call for significant staff increase

.In 2019, each air traffic control operator in Japan handled nearly 7000 flights, up from around 4,600 in 2004, according to the ministry's records.

That sounds Japan Inc problem all over Japan, single staff assigned to many things. Don't want to spend more budget to hire more staffs. Even current staffs will be forced to work more overtime, occasionally unpaid. Not until someone terrible really happen like accidents then they evaluate how things being done.

They want more staff than 19 years ago because the number of flights have doubled in that time period… imagine that?

They want to keep people safe? How dare they Peter Neil! The shame on them!

He said repeated staffing requests to the government, which directly employs air traffic controllers in Japan, have been only partially approved in recent years despite increased workload on controllers.

J Govt know about shortage issue in airtraffic controller but just let it that way?

Employees want less workers, Nah, that can't be true.

A labor union representing air traffic controllers in Japan has called for a "significant increase" in staff to improve the safety of operations at airports

ridiculous. what?

No one has ever thought of this before?

ooops, can’t

how can an airline spend money on something so important as more staff?

don’t they realize CEO and management have to make their billions, before anyone else can?

stop making logical comments there, air traffic controllers

ATC knows cost cutting with staffing & lack of investment in latest safety technology = The Real Safety Problem!

2 Year OldToday  08:07 am JST

They want more staff than 19 years ago because the number of flights have doubled in that time period… imagine that? 

They want to keep people safe? How dare they Peter Neil! The shame on them!

Nice name. You don’t have multiple ground or tower controllers handling the same flights. Hasn’t been a fatal accident in Japan since the mid-80’s and it wasn’t caused by controllers.

Why does the government wait until something dramatic happens before they do what they need to?

The ending of the pandemic and the huge surge in flights had been seen in Europe, the US and many parts of the rest of the world. With Japan about a year behind opening up, they could easily see what was soon coming to Japan as far as air travel was concerened.

Does this government even know what the word "proactive" means?

People need to realize that this accident WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE IN CHANGI SINGAPORE WITH MUCH FEWER CONTROLLERS THAN HANEDA TODAY!!!! And that is using technology they have been using there for OVER 20 YEARS!!!! The simple safety and beauty of it is summed up by this actual ATC clearance in SIN: "You are cleared to taxi to runway 02 right follow the green hold short of the red" Nothing else is said the airport is quiet, even the biggest moron pilot will stop at the red light short of the runway until it changes to green!

The demand for more overpaid procedural dummies in HND will only create more problem with the additional loopholes of overlapping authorities!

In case you wonder a controller makes ¥800,000 per month plus excellent benefits and government pension where is YOUR pension despite you produce something useful and not kill people?

Controlling air traffic has essentially not changed for about 80 years except the bureaucracy got much more bloated the union fat the delays longer and he budget spiralling out of the galaxy.

Easy simple systems could fix it. But the pyramid power structures in place will never allow that until far more blood is spilled and trillions not merely billions wasted.

More tech and more workers can prevent future mishaps.

Another factor is that the US military still control a lot of the airspace in Japan.

If they EVER Release a transcript of what was ACTUALLY SAID, you will hear that the ATC said you are Clear to xxx, the PROPER terminology is: “Taxi to xxxx and HOLD SHORT”.

I believe (with my limited flight training from an Air Force Colonel) the Tower used incorrect terminology which caused the pilot to believe he was CLEAR to Taxi & Take Off.