Question 17446 — air transport

Summary

Ms. Mereana Reid Arbelot draws the attention of the Minister of Transport to the structural difficulties facing the management of air navigation services, recently highlighted by the Senate information report entitled Performance of air traffic control: limiting turbulence to aim for excellence and by the report of the Court of Auditors relating to the management of human resources of the general management of civil aviation. This work reveals a worrying observation: insufficient qualified staff in several organizations, insufficient anticipation of needs, difficulties in adapting control capacities to variations in traffic and considerable delay in modernizing tools. As air traffic continues to grow, around 1,200 controllers, or nearly 30% of the current workforce, are expected to retire between 2029 and 2035. Given the delay of several years between the recruitment of a student controller and obtaining his operational qualification, the decisions taken today will directly determine the control capabilities available at the start of the next decade. The senatorial report therefore recommends increasing, from 2027 and for several years, the annual number of recruitments to around 220 controllers: 200 students trained each year at the National School of Civil Aviation, compared to 160 in the current trajectory, to which would be added the recruitment of around twenty controllers trained in other European countries. The Court of Auditors notes, however, that the sizing of recruitment is still based on insufficiently robust methods and that retirements have been underestimated. It is then essential to determine the needs not only in administrative staff, but above all in qualified and available operational staff, organization by organization, taking into account traffic prospects, foreseeable departures, local training deadlines and capacities as well as the time necessary for adaptation to new systems. Particular attention must be paid to overseas organizations, whose remoteness, operational constraints and difficulties attractiveness and qualification can make situations of understaffing particularly lasting and threaten the continuity of the service. At the end of the 1990s, the French air traffic control system was among the most advanced in Europe and its know-how was widely recognized. Since then, several European states have initiated and financed the digital transformation of their systems, while France has accumulated delays. It is today one of the last European countries to still use paper strips in certain towers and certain outreach centers. The 4-Flight, Coflight and Sysat programs experienced major delays and almost a billion euros in additional costs. Certain critical equipment, notably radiotelephone channels or weather information transmission devices, still relies on technologies ancient. France, once at the forefront, now finds itself at a technological disadvantage compared to its main European partners. Performance cannot therefore be reduced to the organization of controllers' work alone. It is based on three inseparable levers: a sufficient number of qualified staff, modern and reliable operational tools and a work organization enabling adaptation of traffic capacities. The flexibility mechanisms provided for by the 2023-2027 social protocol must therefore be effectively financed, deployed and evaluated, while respecting social dialogue, security requirements and the realities specific to each organization. She therefore asks him if the Government confirms the need to recruit around 220 controllers per year from 2027 and for how many years this trajectory should be be maintained. It wishes to know the detailed projections on which this estimate is based, in particular the expected evolution, year by year and organization by organization, of the number of controllers actually qualified with regard to retirements, forecast traffic and training capacities. She also asks him what resources will be granted to ENAC and the operational centers to absorb this increase. recruitment, develop simulators and streamline qualification courses, without reducing safety requirements or the quality of training. Finally, she wishes to know the credits which will be registered to finance the flexibility mechanisms of the 2023-2027 protocol, complete the technological programs in progress, initiate new generation operating system programs and eliminate obsolescence. affecting critical systems. She asks according to what timetable and by means of which public indicators the Government intends to report on the results of this strategy on safety, qualified personnel, the capacity and performance of the public air navigation service.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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