Four years, no goods

   On the fifth of February four years will have passed since José Blanco, the ousted Minister for Transport, dictatorially removed almost all of Air Traffic Controllers' basic rights.
   Since then, some carriers have folded (notably Spanair), some others have removed operating hubs (easyJet). Others have substantially reduced their routes. In spite of Mr Blanco's promise to lower fares, these have risen notably. There are still bucketloads of useless airports. Spain's busiest airport has just reported a loss in traffic numbers of 10,2% in 2013, which piles upon further reductions in 2012, 2011, 2010...
   There were dozens of what we call near misses in 2010. They should really be called near crashes.
ATC training is rubbish, briefings are useless and the Single Sky novelties, such as AMAN (Arrivals MANagement) and CDM (Collaborative Decision Making) have been subsidised for their introduction but have been brought in with almost no training and no extra staffing.
   North of four hundred controllers are being subjected to lawsuits when what happened in December 2010 was not coordination industrial action, but a lockout. See http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/santiago/2014/01/18/vazquez-tain-decreta-archivo-causa-contra-controladores-santiago/00031390047071041389133.htm for example.
   Air Traffic Control schools have popped up like mushrooms, all of them quite bad but willing to take forty or fifty thousand euros for a three or four month course useful for practically nothing....
   Aena continues to be a quite obscure company with little or no transparency. And Aesa, the supervisory institution which is supposed to overlook it all, has done nothing to ensure Safety is not jeopardised. In fact, it is interesting to check how they performed regarding a Spanish carrier's accident in Ireland see http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/spanish-regulator-had-inadequate-oversight-on-company-that-operated-fatal-manx2-flight-1-6401872
   Amidst a society, the Spanish, with over five million unemployed and a huge crisis, Aena itself has a debt of well over 10,000 million euros. European competition favouring legislation has forbidden public aid, the picture is very grim.
   Fortunately accidents are few and far between, But the same higher institutions and philosophy are behind Spains air navigation sector and its railway system. The risks ALARP principle has been completely misunderstood as the administration is striving to substitute efficient, but expensive, operational personnel for inexperienced, but cheaper, engineers.
   This just proves that bringing "low cost" into air navigation services isn't at all reasonable.