Controllers will not lose jobs

Press, 31 January 1986, Page 7

Controllers will not lose jobs

Dunedin air traffic controllers will not lose their jobs because of the dismantling of Dunedin Airport’s radar system.

Allegations that nine controllers would lose their jobs once the radar was removed, made by Cr Vicki Buck at a Christchurch City Council committee meeting on Wednesday, were “completely wrong,” said a Ministry of Transport spokesman.

Air traffic control staff at Dunedin would be reduced by two. The other seven would still be needed to keep aircraft moving safely, using radio and instrument landing equipment, said the Ministry’s regional secretary for trahsport in Christchurch, Mr Ken Lecomte. All the Dunedin controllers had been offered the chance to continue radar work by transferring to

other airports at the department’s expense, Mr Lecomte said. This included the two staff members affected by the reduction. Cr Buck said she was sure she had not told the committee that nine controllers would lose their jobs. “I may have got it back to front, but I understood that seven of the controllers were being transferred,” she said.

Her information had come from telephone conversations with Dunedin Airport staff.

It had been difficult to get information because airport staff could not comment to the public on departmental decisions. Dunedin Airport’s radar system is being dismantled to give other New Zealand airports spare parts for their radars. Christchurch will get some of the parts.