[James Chan]

Except that to achieve competitive advantage, airports won't want to do that.

But if every airport was levied with the same rental cost per cubic metre.....?

I think I've seen enough airports pass on much unwanted costs to myself.

[Stu B]

Paying a fee to reserve airspace for your use seems fundamentally the same principle as paying a fee to have part of the electronic spectrum reserved for your use, and that was in part justified as a way to make people only use the frequencies they really needed rather than what they already had and hoped not to have to give up.
Airports would not all pay the same cost, James, some would develop compact, efficient designs and pay less, any that hang on to space they did not need would pay extra. No differentto how much land or buildings or heating and lighting they use, the more they use the more it costs them,

[GonzoEGLL]

........And then of course airports and airlines would be completely justified in filing lawsuits against pilots who infringed to recover all the costs caused by such an infringement.........??

[tomshep]

Try this:
If you have airspace, you have to have enough people to work it properly. If you don't then it reverts to class G.

[GonzoEGLL]

Aha.!

Great idea!

But........‘Properly’ according to the UK CAA?

Or ‘properly’ according to someone else?

[johnm]

The charging idea simply perpetuates the govt. policy of market fixes everything.

If there is a truly competitive market opportunity then a regulated market with targeted subsidies can work reasonably well. e.g. telecoms.

Unless there is a truly competitive market national Infrastructure should be planned and funded nationally with contractors hired to operate it not control it. There is room for franchised private investment but it needs to be properly supervised and managed and the numbers need to work properly.

I remember asking a senior IT executive at a well known High St bank about their plan to outsource IT as instructed by the Board :

Me. "You are a banker, you can do sums. You have a huge operation well above the critical mass for resources to be effectively available in all areas and you are a cost centre so how do you outsource that to someone who needs to make a profit and make it cheaper?"

Him.

[kanga]

Aha.!

Great idea!

But........‘Properly’ according to the UK CAA?

Or ‘properly’ according to someone else?

MORs for every refusal of Class D penetration 'due controller workload' to count as (annually revealed) evidence of 'not properly enough' ?

But, as recent Gatwick ATCO shortage (affecting CAT, not just GA) shows, a fundamental problem is that, since '80s, UK central Government Ministers have made it policy that strategic planning for adequate numbers of people with skills needed for strategic economic activity is not, and should not be, 'Government business'. The 'free market' will, by ideological definition, yield the 'best' solution to any shortage (or glut) of skills. This is as true of ATCOs as of clinicians of all sorts, construction workers of all sorts, and even seasonal fruit-pickers.

[Paul_Sengupta]

The charging idea simply perpetuates the govt. policy of market fixes everything.

Charging for airspace isn't "free market", it's akin to social engineering via tax, such as the tax on alcohol and tobacco designed to cut down on/limit its use.

[GonzoEGLL]

MORs for every refusal of Class D penetration 'due controller workload' to count as (annually revealed) evidence of 'not properly enough' ?

But, as recent Gatwick ATCO shortage (affecting CAT, not just GA) shows, a fundamental problem is that, since '80s, UK central Government Ministers have made it policy that strategic planning for adequate numbers of people with skills needed for strategic economic activity is not, and should not be, 'Government business'. The 'free market' will, by ideological definition, yield the 'best' solution to any shortage (or glut) of skills. This is as true of ATCOs as of clinicians of all sorts, construction workers of all sorts, and even seasonal fruit-pickers.

As has been said here before, though, workload isn't always reduced by sectorisation/more ATCOs working the same CTR. Some of the workload is generated by duty of care and TCAS considerations.