Statement from Airservices Australia CEO Rob Sharp

We know that recent air traffic disruptions at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport have been frustrating for passengers, airlines and airports.

We are sorry for our impact on flight delays and we understand the impact it has on people’s travel plans.

I want to assure the public that safety is not compromised when issues with staffing levels occur. We put in place measures that reduce the traffic levels to ensure safety, but this can lead to flight delays.

Working with airlines and our union partners, we are committed to improving the consistency of our performance. We are building a larger pool of standby air traffic controllers to increase our staffing contingency numbers at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, reduce overtime and deliver stable rosters.

I want to thank our dedicated controllers for their professionalism and work through this challenging period.

At Sydney, we have endorsed eight new tower controllers over the past 18 months, continued recruitment of experienced and trainee controllers, and installed a new Sydney Tower simulator to significantly increase our training capacity. Our leadership team will continue to work with and support our Sydney staff to deliver improvements.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our air traffic controllers, disruptions due to air traffic control across the aviation network have reduced by 86 per cent over the past financial year. Airservices-attributable ground delays fell 13 per cent and accounted for less than 0.1 per cent of total network delays.

However we understand that any delay has an impact on passengers and we are committed to making further improvements, particularly in Sydney.

While concerted recruitment efforts in recent years have enabled us to grow air traffic controller numbers to a record high, the demands on our workforce have also grown significantly.