Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 September 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Aviation Trends, Air Traffic Control and Drone Activity: Discussion

1:30 pm

Mr. Philip Hughes:

Exactly. That shows the position on blockages. If you are facing a 20% increase in traffic in your local area, it is very difficult to wrap it up. The systems themselves are not scalable; that is part of it.

With air traffic control, it tends to go in steps. It is not a linear progression, so we need to build-in for that reality. Equally, post-Covid-19, there were cash flow problems in many instances and this meant investments were not made, engineers were laid off and there was no recruitment. The pain from this is now being felt.