When I started working for an air navigation service back in 2000, there was an inside joke that only two of the 1,500 employees were profitable: the ones working for the routes charge department. They were in charge of collecting money from airlines via EUROCONTROL. But, does that make them the most important employees? And if not, what is the most important department in an ANSP?
Of course, operations departments are super important. After all, without air traffic controllers, there is no traffic and no revenue. If there are no ATCOs available, it creates an immediate issue, which heightens their visibility and can give them a feeling of being the most important department in the company.
But then there's also the technical department. Because ATCOs can't work without equipment. The impact might be less immediate, especially when it comes to equipment renewal projects. These can last for years. But they are still important too, right? Or, maybe, the training department is the most important. After all, if no new ATCOs are trained, there will be nobody to keep traffic flowing and replace existing ATCOs when they eventually leave.
The list goes on and on. But you see my point. All departments in an ANSP play a crucial role and are here for a reason. The impact of their work, or issues impacting them, will become visible at different times and on different scales. From my experience, the faster a problem goes up, the faster it can be solved. I tend to worry more about a problem that has been slowly becoming more and more acute over months or even years than one that pops up without warning and skyrockets.
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