Austria’s airspace was completely unprotected over the past weekend, and the reason for this is quite bizarre considering the level of development of the country.
According to Austrian media, Eurofighter fighter jets used by the Austrian military had to remain on the ground this weekend, and this decision was confirmed to the media by the military and Austrian air traffic control.
Although the media criticized this decision and wrote about how impossible it is for a country like Austria to have no fighter jets on standby in case of incidents, the military explained this decision.
As stated, the planes remained on the ground due to the fact that all the fighter jet air traffic controllers had too many overtime hours and were therefore forced to take the weekend off.
“The Ministry of Defense has been working for years to solve the problem of too few air traffic controllers. There have been many discussions, but no one wanted to recognize this problem,” said Chief of the General Staff of the Austrian Army Rudolf Striedinger.
Another problem was also highlighted regarding salaries, which consequently led to a smaller number of controllers.
“Many air traffic controllers moved to Austro Control because they were better paid. In the military, people are thinking about bonuses for employees. A similar problem occurred with interceptor pilots, at that time Saab Draken, in the 1980s. At that time, the problem was solved with special contracts, which meant that the pilots earned as much as they did in Austria in commercial operations. Now something like this is also needed for air traffic controllers,” they said.
The Austrian right-wing also reacted to this decision and criticized the ministry, which is controlled by the Greens.
“Austrian airspace was completely defenseless over the weekend and all the armed forces in the world, as well as terrorists, were able to use domestic airspace without hindrance,” said FPO spokesman Volker Reifenberger, Klix.ba writes.
