Australian Border Force imposes new rules for New Zealand pilots on transtasman flights

Transtasman crew face new checks in Australia. Photo / Peter Meecham

Transtasman pilots face tighter border rules in Australia, which has hit schedules as the aviation system struggles to recover from staff shortages.

And there’s a warning that European airspace will be badly constrained into the northern summer.

In this country, the Board of Air Line Representatives says the misplaced bag problem at Auckland Airport appears to be easing but there are still long queues getting through when planes arrive at the same time. Executive director Cath O’Brien said border agencies were still trying to find staff.

Air New Zealand this week said it is on the hunt for 400 more airport workers at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and is offering higher wages to attract them.

The airline is also working to minimise the impact of new rules in Australia requiring crew to get Australian Border Force clearance when doing round-trip flights across the Tasman. They have to get off the aircraft and go through airports instead of staying on board as has historically been the practice.

“Until recently, turnaround crews operating to Australian ports remained on board on the ‘turn’ and Australian Border Force (ABF) cleared crew at the aircraft. Earlier this month, ABF reminded airlines that the ability to clear crew at the aircraft was resource dependent,” said chief flight operations and safety officer David Morgan.

Work was being done on this in the background and the airline expected the issue to be resolved soon.

“This did have some minor impacts on flight schedules,” he said.

It is not something Australian crews are required to do in New Zealand.

“We have been working constructively with officials in Australia to reach a resolution and we are hopeful that this issue will be resolved soon,” said Morgan.

The International Air Transport Association reports that disruption in Europe could be worse than it was last northern summer.

According to safety organisation Eurocontrol, there was a 33 per cent increase in arrival delays compared with 2019, reaching 16.9 minutes per flight on average. Peak periods easily exceeded that average.

Departure punctuality was below 50 per cent at the beginning of July and rarely rose above 60 per cent for the next two months. It got so bad that nearly 7 per cent of scheduled flights in 2022 didn’t take off at all, the association’s Airlines magazine reports.

The northern hemisphere’s 2023 summer season could be even worse. Rory Sergison, IATA’s head of air traffic management infrastructure in Europe, said there were many challenges facing European airspace in the coming peak summer months.

Russian and Ukrainian airspaces are closed, as is Moldovan airspace due to sanctions. Assuming the Russia-Ukraine war continues, traffic will get pushed south, overloading a southeastern European corridor to and from Turkey and Greece that will already be thick with tourist traffic to popular vacation destinations. The progressive reopening of Asian markets will exacerbate the problem of too many passengers for the strained aviation system.

Added to this is strong traffic growth in central Europe and southeastern Europe, the latter having already surpassed 2019 levels in summer 2022. Planned military activity is also on the rise, particularly in France and Germany, Airlines reports.

Industrial unrest was also a threat.

“France is especially concerning as air traffic control officers do not have to give details of their proposed strike action. Their airspace could fall to a minimum service with very little notice.”

It was also possible that key airports, including Amsterdam Schiphol and London Heathrow, will limit capacity.

“European skies were saturated in 2022 and we expect more traffic in 2023,” said Sergison.

“It will be tough to avoid delays given the challenges the European system faces, but with a combination of procedural, technological, and rostering improvements, we could mitigate the worst of the problems.”