‘Exempt Delhi ATC staff from breath tests’, says controllers’ guild
Shortage of manpower is plaguing Delhi’s Air Traffic Control (ATC) with at least 21% of staff are either down with Covid-19 or are in isolation. In the wake of the increasing Covid-19 cases detected among the controllers, the controllers’ guild has written to the Airports Authority of India (AAI), requesting it to suspend breath analyser tests that enhance the risk of infection.
According to officials in Delhi ATC, as many as 85 of the total 402 air traffic controllers are either Covid-positive or are in quarantine.
“While at least 55-60 controllers used to work in a shift earlier, the strength has now reduced to 35-40 controllers. In order to deal with any crisis, we do have at least 10-12 controllers as back up at all times.
