Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Committee on Defence and National Security
Recent Air Corps Developments: Discussion
2:00 am
Mr. Rory O'Connor:
There are different levels of qualifications you can have to be a controller. There is a volume piece but there is also a variety piece. In Baldonnel, we will have large aircraft, jet aircraft, helicopters and civilian aircraft transiting. That makes it quick a complex piece. In Dublin Airport, you are looking at what we call line traffic. It is commercial traffic coming in at set speeds. I am not saying it makes it easier. In case some civilian air traffic controllers have a go at me. It is a different concept. With regard to someone who is qualified in Dublin to come work in Baldonnel, while they have all the qualifications, there is a training piece required to allow them operate in what is effectively a different environment they are not used to.
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