By Joanna Plucinska and Tim Hepher
LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - EasyJet has urged French authorities to resolve air traffic control problems after a report into a near-collision involving one of its jets cited staff shortages and absenteeism.
"This clearly has been one of the weakest links in the whole chain of aviation; we know it has been an issue particularly in France," CEO Johan Lundgren said when asked about shortages.
"They need to sort out the problem because there are millions of people struggling with this thing. The key thing is prioritising safety and they need to have a solid and resilient operation".
France's DGAC aviation authority had no immediate comment.
French investigators recently concluded a probe into the near-miss at Bordeaux airport on Dec. 31, 2022, when a controller apparently forgot that a private plane was on the runway as an A320 jetliner was fast approaching with 179 passengers on board. Crew were ordered to abort the landing after the pilot of the small DR400 - taking a leisure flight with his nine-year-old son - raised the alarm on hearing over the radio that the easyJet (LON:EZJ) plane was coming in to land from London Gatwick.
Only the reactions of the unidentified leisure pilot avoided a more serious accident, France's BEA agency said. It cited a shortage of staff in the tower, exacerbated by the practice of combining tasks usually carried out by separate controllers into one. Only three were on duty instead of six.
The report was issued days before a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 collided with a coast guard plane after landing at Tokyo's Haneda on Jan. 2, killing five people on the smaller plane.
Japanese investigators are expected to focus in part on communications between the tower and coast guard pilots. In both events, the airliner crew reported not seeing the smaller plane.
'CAR PARK U-TURN'
The BEA report sheds light on distractions controllers regularly face everywhere, as well as language problems.
But it has also sparked a debate in France about absenteeism after exposing a wider system under which controllers had been setting lower hours by keeping their own "parallel" roster.
Management knew of the shadow rosters but could not access them and appeared to have turned a blind eye to keep the peace in France's strike-prone control centres, the BEA said.
It also cited a practice nicknamed the "car park U-turn" in which some control staff clocked in for work by entering the car park - only to head straight out again.
In two separate days of checks by France's DSNA air traffic control authority last year, 13% of controllers worked half their shift or less and 12% did not turn up at all.
In testimony to the BEA, management confirmed the existence of a parallel schedule and said relations with unions were "difficult" on anything that involved work tracking.
France's SNCTA union could not immediately be reached.
France's transport minister has given air traffic control (ATC) authorities two months to put work practices in order.
France has frequent controller strikes, drawing complaints from foreign airlines like easyJet and Ryanair (LON:0RYA) which are prevented from crossing through its airspace to serve busy markets like Spain.
On Tuesday, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary reiterated criticism of government policies allowing strikes to hamper "overflights".
"When they are not on strike, (French controllers) provide a very good service," he told Reuters. "The issue is not with French ATC but the government not protecting overflights".