Ryanair says the public are being ‘hijacked’ (ho, ho, good one, got the marketing executives to brainstorm that one no doubt!) by the Air Traffic Controllers. I say bollocks.
Pay the fuckers whatever they want. A disgruntled binman can’t do much but work more slowly or not at all. A backlog of rubbish won’t kill us. A disgruntled Air Traffic Controller could cause some serious damage.
“Aer Lingus 427 requesting permission to land”
“Just bank 35 degrees east Aer Lingus 427, descend as rapidly as you can.”
“Aer Lingus 427 about to land on the M50 southbound which is backed up as far as the eye can see.”
“Continue your course Aer Lingus 427.”
Fuck that. It would just take one lunatic – and you know that there’s at least one complete fucking mentalist in every office. Do you want to take the chance of having that bloke, pissed off because he’s not getting overtime, ensuring your flight doesn’t have a near-hit (I assume this is the opposite of ‘near-miss’ despite near-miss really meaning ‘smash into’) with another plane?
Pay them double and Michael O’Leary can shut the fuck up this time.
I’ll second that motion!
Install aeroplane traffic-lights, suspended from hydrogen-filled baloons and sack the fuckin’ lot of ‘em.
O’ Leary is starting to piss me off with all of his extra costs. If you ar, by chance, part of a family it will cost you gazillions more to travel by cryanair and sit together while bringing some clothes and checking in a case for each family member. He has become a robbing cunt and far worse that Aer Fungus ever was!!
can we not go back to the good old days of Zeppelins?
Fair enough to ante up for the lads at Dublin airport, who must be pushing tin at lightspeed, so busy is the fucking place.
But I’m buggered if the lazy part-time feckers at Knock, Waterford, Farranfore and all the other BS landing strips around the country that only exist because some Minister or Monsignor wanted somewhere to land his chopper, should get a fecking penny.
They only work ten minutes a week as it is, waving in the Thursday flight from Heathrow and its cohort of three passengers (the local Minister for Nepotism, Clientelism and Useless Vanity Projects, his PR puffbunny and his other PR puffbunny).
Give the poor lads at Dublin whatever they want, and fund it by closing all those waste of money regional airports. That’s what I say.
I found it cheaper to buy 3 extra tickets on Aer Lingus than 1 extra on Ryanair to keep a party of 4 together last Sept.
Isn’t it amazing, how Ryanair manages to keep getting worse? And worse. And worse……
I can just hear the check-in girl now:
“Now sir, would you like to avail of our Guided Landing Service for an extra €3?”
“Guided What?”
“Landing Service. I means that your plane will be landed with the assistance of our Air Traffic Control personnel.”
“And what if I don’t?”
“The plane is landed by the pilot without assistance”
“But he’s got his onboard instruments, right?”
“No sir. The instruments are powered off to control costs.”
“That’s sounds dodgy”
“Well sir, for just an extra €30 you can rent a parachute in the event of an airborne emergency…”
Over here in Maguire Mansions, Mr. O’Leary can always shut the fuck up – not just this time Twenty. He has managed to pull a major swizz – cheap flights my arse. Pretty soon, he’ll be charging you muppets who fly with them for breathing (Ryan) air on his planes.
The fuckers will include the lifejacket in your luggage allowance.
On principle I agree with the “pay them what they want” sentiment. On a totally selfish level their strike may prevent me getting to Belgium next week and I can only see that as a good thing.
“Now sir, would you like to avail of our Guided Landing Service for an extra €3?”
haha, that’s so scarily funny.
JC, you’re a muppet.
If you close all the regional airports then that just congests traffic even more.
May as well close all of the other roads in the country, the M50 is the only one worth having eh?
What are you trying to do to the people of Dublin, this morning you had a bus load of the poor fuckers getting the shit and the puke scared out of them in Blubberville, and then they get back into Irish airspace they have to make a choice, crash land on the M50 or land at Knock airport, I know they are from Dublin but even they should have better choices.
Aer Fungus – hahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
No.
Strike? Bugger, how long’s it likely to last? Is anything landing in Ireland at all then?
24 hour strike, more talks on Monday to try and avert. Is that when you arrive?
not worried about being able to land in ireland. taking off (as in going somewhere nicer, or just away) is the important part. ireland has just become a large spike island.
I love O’ Leary. He should be the king of Ireland. Quotes from Financial Times Interviews:
On travel agents: “Screw the travel agent. Take the fuckers out and shoot them. What have they done for passengers over the years?”
On co-existence with British Airways: “There is too much: ‘we really admire our competitors’. All bollocks. Everyone wants to kick the shit out of everyone else. We want to beat the crap out of BA. They mean to kick the crap out of us.”
Twenty – you’re not related are you?
Ah seriously though, You don’t love Michael O’Leary really? He’s a proper cunt. He was in my workplace one day, bit of an ignorant bollox. Was driving a 01 Merc. Cheap bastard.
Did I mention he was a cunt?
If O’Leary was on the plane then I have no issue with it crashing.
you don’t think he’d be stupid enough to get on one of his own planes, do you? pilot would probably crash on purpose regardless of anyone being in the tower.
24 hour strike, more talks on Monday to try and avert. Is that when you arrive?
No. Next week. I thought it might be an out and out strike but if they’re only out for 24 hour long periods, it’s probably OK. 24 hours delay wouldn’t be the end of the world. It would be a bummer alright ‘cos I’m only in Ireland a few days but them’s the breaks, I guess. I’m going through Atlanta and I’ve never been there so that might be alright for a day.
Bugger, I’ve just got an email from Dev saying the strike’s on Thursday when I am due to arrive. Poo.
When Micheal O’Leary goes on holiday how does he get there? He’s a rich fucker so I doubt he flies his own airline to the shitty Ryanair airports in the middle of nowhere.
Who does he fly with to go to the states?
Nice work stealing that “near-miss, near-hit” thing from George Carlin.
There’s no better comedian to nick from.
I might point out that in 1981 the US President Ronald Reagan called the Air Traffic Controller’s bluff, fired them all and hired new. No planes fell from the skies, no accidents, no problems. The various airports hired new staff — presumably non-union. It was a disaster for all unions and one from which they never recovered.
H – yes you did quite accurately mention he is a cunt. And no, I don’t actually love Messr. O’ Leary. It was merely a device to bring up the FT quotes and thus compare him with twenty, hopefully resulting in an hilarious exchange of “fuck off – I’m nothing like that cunt”, “yes you are, you cunt”, type ripostes.
But, it’s fucking ruined now, isn’t it?
I might point out that in 1981 the US President Ronald Reagan called the Air Traffic Controller’s bluff, fired them all and hired new. No planes fell from the skies, no accidents, no problems. The various airports hired new staff — presumably non-union. It was a disaster for all unions and one from which they never recovered
Certainly, you are correct….BUT they [Yanks] imposed “flow control”, to “Sort out that ‘minor’ problem”.
OOI, They also have more “Runway Incursions” per movement than any other [Airport] ATC provider…..
FACT
Keep the Faith guys
[ATCer/UK]
Yes it is. Ruined, that is.
Sorry cnut, I mistook you for a genuine O’Leary lover, weird as that may seem
There’s a phrase you don’t hear every day – “…..a genuine O’Leary lover”
It’s OK H, I was just taking the Michael! Ba-boom-tish!
Sorry. Headache now.
Theres a little hairdressers in Co Kilkenny called “RyanHair” I laugh every time I pass it…
RE The strike, they will give them what they want, in case of the embarassment of telling the yanks, that they cant land any planes for 24 hours cause we have no controlers…
Think it also means planes cant enter Irish airspace, but I do stand open to correction on that??
SAm – Don’t you sleep at all?
Listened to O’Leary on the radio there,
apparently the controllers get about €100000 per year minimum.
And they’re looking for increases.
cunts.
PS: I’m well aware that he would spin this in anyway to get an advantage, but he can’t lie blatantly on the radio without someone catching him out.
Get yourself a copy of the Daily Mail Twenty, you’re on page five:
“Foul-mouthed blogger lands major book deal”
Looks like your publishers have been ‘cranking up the PR machine’. When can we expect the Hotpress interview and the spot on Ryan Tubridy’s morning radio show?
Foul-mouthed? How fucking dare they, the cunts
Morgor. My brother’s an ATC and he earns about €70k (this includes shift allowance so the basic pay is quite crap). So O’Leary is taking through his hole. Yes, once in the job for about 10 years, you earn about €100k.
They are looking for increases to bring them in-line with the EU average so I don’t think it’s THAT unfair.
Also, this dispute not necessarily about pay. It’s about working hours. They are being forced to work their days off. Now who in their right mind would force someone who deals with stressful situations for their working week (5 shifts in 4 days) to work some of their days off. The reason is because they are short staffed. Why? Because they have not replaced ATCs who have retired recently. The IAA let a bunch of student ATCs go a rfew years ago and didn;t take any on for a few years so they now have a shortage of newly qualified ATCs.
You really want a tired ATC at the helm when you’re taking off on your way to Laza’bleedin’rote? I think not.
Some things in life are not worth moaning about. For everything else, there’s Ryanair.
Just read Mongors post, he sounds like one of these morons who believes everything he hears or reads. Go get yourself a copy of the Sun and come back with some more stories you buffoon. Good post Tusky…
My mentor cnut seems to have gotten over his labels problem he’s back to his gobshite ways, himself and Sam have resumed they mutual arse licking!
Thanks Tusk for some first hand knowledge.
Mastaa, how about you go back to fucking your sister?
I should add that I’m pissed that ma younger bro’s on more money so I am. I’m not for the strike just because he’s my brother, moreso for what I think is right. I thought the same as many people until I found out the actual problems that they are having.
Cause she is all fucked out, just like your momma.
that’s what it’s like in the ‘hood bro.
I’m down with that mastaaa.
yeah dog, owwww. check that shit out.
I agree with Mr. Tusk. If an organisation has to pay tons of overtime to get the most basic tasks done (air traffic control, prison guards, police etc) then surely this points to an issue with headcount i.e. there not being enough warm bodies to do the job properly. Now considering most overtime is paid at time and a half (depending on the day of the week etc)then surely the obvious, sensible thing to do is to hire more people and pay them a standard wage for a standard weeks work. In saying this I’m sure that I’ll piss off the unions and those prison officers/Gardai with two houses who rely on overtime. You can’t please everybody I suppose.
That shit makes me horny…..
The problem is indeed headcount. Every organisation has it. A full-time employee is a burden. They are close to impossible to get rid of. Companies sacrifice more money now in what they think will save them money in the long run. So ~100k for 30 years = €3m and they can’t get rid of the person.
Most companies handle this problem by bringing in contractors short term but I’m not sure that this industry can work that way. So they up the current employee work load, forcing them to do overtime.
Mr Tusk, Cuntass O’Leary was also saying that they only work 35 hours a week etc etc. Someone from your brothers union should really get on the air and denounce him.
But enough about the radio, I’m going back to looking at boobs in the Sun. Islam is evil. Export all the foreigners. Engerland Engerland…. i mean I-erland, I-erland….
No, Morgor, you’re the muppet. Firstly, there’s not a single route into any of the regional airports (apart from Dublin, Cork and Shannon) that’s viable without taxpayer subsidies. IE I’m being taxed a pretty penny so that these villages can have vanity airports. Secondly, they only get about three flights a week each, which frankly wouldn’t impact on anything, least of all Dublin congestion, if they were let die a natural death.
Thirdly, they’re run as total sinecures – plenty of easy high paid jobs for the boys. And finally, the congestion at Dublin relates to a simple lack of passenger capacity – they need a second terminal and a new runway anyway, whether the fantasy airports in every hick town and village are allowed to continue or not.
Can we bomb some country too, just randomly, possibly even for it’s resources and then install a puppet leader?
JC, perhaps you have a point about really small airports.
But lets look at the figures for 2 regional airports :
Galway : over 300000 passengers in 2007. 120 flights to and from the UK every week.
Waterford regional : over 100000 passengers in 2007.
Fair enough Dublin airport processed 1.5 million in January alone but every little helps.
Besides, I’d imagine there’s one or two ATCs in each airport so I doubt that’s going to impact your tax a huge amount.
I love hearing people talk about subjects they have only very vaguely touched on, it brings a spring to my step and warmth to my heart…..
….oh wait no it doesn’t, it makes me make my angry raping face….
and it gives me a horn
Lads. The ATCs don’t just look after the planes coming in and out of the airport. they handle all the planes in their airspace. Most planes coming from US come through Irish airspace at some point. The ATCs in the regional airports handle those as well.
(Irish Airspace) http://www.iaa.ie/images/IAA_map2.jpg
over 300,000 aircraft movements handled by shannon yearly, and over 150,000 in dublin, you want angry underpaid controllers handling that ever increasing volume of traffic?
why dont we give the Garda automatic weapons and cut their pay by 33% to pay for them?
Mr Tusk, how are the ATCs paid?
Are they purely goverment paid? or do the airports pay part of their wages?
Airlines pay user charges, the IAA’s user charges are one of the lowest in Europe. These charges fund the salaries of all IAA staff.
Its a semi state company. Originally funded by the government, but now they make their own money, and pay their own employees.
Ok, so JC has no real complaint against ATC taking spending his hard-earning tax money.
Even if they are “easy high paid jobs for the boys…in every hick town”.
I dont think he does. Controllers get paid well everywhere because the job requires 100% of your concentration 100% of the time your working. Plus you have so many lives on the line, plus such an expensive vehicle.
There is no room for fuck ups, start cutting corners or cost cutting and that’s when cylindrical tubes packed with fat holiday makers go into the ground like fucking darts…
who the fuck is Michael O’Leary to moan about pay? Still living in a 2 up 2 down is he? “Look how cheap our flights are …. oh, there’s airport tax on that, oh and a fee for you bags (???), oh and a fee for paying by credit card” ripoff cunt
We ATC’s get paid by the IAA. They in turn are paid by Eurocontrol who get go around to all the airlines in the world and collect money (Tony Soprano style) from them for flying through a countries airspace. We charge the lowest in Europe for planes to fly through so all the fuckers fly through our airspace making the IAA millions. We have worked increased traffic and increased volume of airspace (i think up to 500,000 sq kms) We were promised to be paid for this but it never came. This stike is not about pay though… NEVER has been. We want more students recruited. Plain and simple. The system needs to be fed with controllers constantly for the next 3 years as there is a huge number of retirements coming up. But in IAA style, they will beg this people who have served 40 long hard years to stay on a little longer. Only the 1 fingered salute will work in return.
Starting controllers earn 65,000 euros a year after 2 years hard training. Every exam taken has a pass mark of 75% (you dont want stupid cunts handling live traffic) After 18 years on the salary scale you rise to 105,000 euros a year which is NOTHING compared to what O’Leary pays his pilots, even he isn’t stupid to realise without his pilots he’s fucked.
Well Mr Tusks Bro, I wish you well in your endeavours now that I understand the situation.
Ye thanks man, very informative for someone starting training in 2 weeks in Shannon.
As mentioned above there are echoes of the PATCO strike of 81 during Regan times: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_%281968%29
In an ironic case of blowback the unions endorsed Regan for President breaking away from traditional Democrat support. Oh dear.
I seem to remember this rearing it’s head in America recently too. Again not about money, more about time off. These guys and gals are knackered and something bad will happen if it’s not corrected. ATCs having to book minor surgeries just to ensure they can get two days off. Jeez if you are working 6 day weeks the hourly rate on 100k p.a. considering the profession is not that great.
Companies the world over are moving away from permanent employees as they see them as a bad risk\too expensive and moving toward the lesser cost and responsibility of contract\temporary employees.
Anybody want Sanjii the 20 yr old casual intern directing their plane? Thought not. (not a slight against Indians of course!)
ATC humour 1;
The German controllers at Frankfurt Airport were a short-tempered lot.
They not only expected you to know your parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (PanAm 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground and a British Airways 747 (radio call Speedbird 206) after landing.
Speedbird 206: “Good morning Frankfurt, Speedbird 206 clear of the active.”
Ground: “Guten morgan, taxi to your gate.”
The British Airways 747 pulls onto the main taxiway and stops.
Ground: “Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?”
Speedbird 206: “Stand by, ground, I’m looking up the gate location
now.”
Ground (with typical German impatience): “Speedbird 206, have you never flown to Frankfurt before?”
Speedbird 206 (coolly): “Yes, in 1944. But I didn’t stop.”
ATC humour 2
Get your grin on here:
http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2007/pilot-conversations-p1.php
While taxiing at London’s Gatwick Airport , the crew of a US Air flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727.
An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming: “US Air 2771, where the hell are you going? I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it’s difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!”
Continuing her rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: “God! Now you’ve screwed everything up! It’ll take forever to sort this out! You stay right there and don’t move till I tell you to! You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour, and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you! You got that, US Air 2771?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the humbled crew responded.
Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every cockpit out around Gatwick was definitely running high. Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, asking:
“Wasn’t I married to you once?”
I wonder why this issue always crops up with jobs like ATCs, pilots and doctors? Of all the people in the world, the ones you want most well rested are your doctor, pilot or ATC. Everybody else it doesn’t matter QUITE as much. I might add most NCHDs in Ireland are nowhere near 65K a year, some are maybe after a lot of overtime but they’re paid even less to work even more as they have no effective union representation. ATCs should get as much money as they bloody well can, the higher the pay of a profession, the better quality of staff it tends to attract and maintain. Pay and conditions deteriorate, and suddenly people who can do a bit better for themselves look elsewhere or never apply in the first place.
Interesting fact: when I started as a medical intern (after 6 years hard graft in college) in 2004, my basic pay was 26K p.a. I made 49K total (gross) after the worst year of my life doing 90-100 hour weeks, and in one hospital, 56 hour shifts with no break as part of a 100 hour week! If management can get away with it, they’ll make you do it. Everyone should have a good union!
“Listened to O’Leary on the radio there,
apparently the controllers get about €100000 per year minimum.”
If that’s the going salary I’m getting myself a pair of table tennis bats and applying for the job…..
I wonder will that be O’Leary’s consellation when they’re fishing bodies out of the Irish sea. Us ATCs want safer working conditions.
I wonder will be this be O’Leary’s concellation when bodies are being fished out of the Irish sea. ATCs are not looking for more money, they just don’t want to have to work on their days off.
ATCs want a commitment form the iaa for MORE STAFF. We are not looking for more money
Don’t know if there’s anyone still reading, but a little update on this situation. Negotiations between union and management have gone very well so far. There seems to be a commitment to staffing and a structured overtime scheme with finite hours. This pleases me greatly. Thanks to impact and also to iaa. This is what was wanted all along. O’leary tried to muddy the waters with allusions to our pay. But a fatigued controller is a fatigued controller whether they earn 40,000 or 400,000.
I apologise if my previous post was in any way dramatic, I don’t wish to scaremonger. The Irish ATC system has an impecible safety record. But as in all walks of life, it requires constant vigilance. ATCs, as coalface workers, are the first to recognise when things are slipping and they will do what it takes to make sure their voice is heard. There’s just too much at stake to remain silent.
Cheers for the update.
love the idea. keep it going plz, you are all cleared lo leave a message at your own, via your keyboard, read back. ;)