§ Mr. WelshTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport on how many occasions the Scottish air traffic control centre has been overloaded by excessive flights over the past five years.
§ Mr. NorrisBefore 1993 if air traffic controllers considered that their workload on their sector had become too high they could submit a report which was investigated by both the unit management and the safety data analysis unit at Gatwick. The figures in Scotland for the period 1989 to 1992 were:
- 1 sector incident in 1989
- 4 sector incident in 1990
- 2 sector incident in 1991
- 1 sector incident in 1992
In 1993, a new recording system was introduced which cannot be directly compared with the previous system.
532WThere were 13 investigations in 1993 and 10 investigations so far in 1994.
§ Mr. WelshTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what method is used to deal with excess flight pressure on the air traffic control system; and how many times this has been used in the past five years.
§ Mr. NorrisWithin the United Kingdom, National Air Traffic Services establishes a flow rate for each sector of air space which takes into account air traffic controller manning. In order to prevent air traffic control demand exceeding the agreed level in United Kingdom air space the London flow management unit, situated at Heathrow, applies departure and flow restrictions measures. Such measures are designed to ensure that safety is not compromised and are applied throughout the busy times of the day.