Safety concerns for Adelaide air traffic

Pilots are concerned plans for traffic controllers in Melbourne to supervise planes preparing to land at Adelaide Airport could pose safety risks.

Airservices Australia has flagged that it will shift a number of terminal control unit positions from Adelaide to Tullamarine Airport from 2017.

While there will be no forced redundancies, the decision could require about 20 employees to move interstate in order to keep their jobs.

Airservices Australia spokesman Rob Walker says the move won't threaten safety because tower controllers with local knowledge will continue to supervise planes taking off and landing.

"What we are proposing is completely safe," he told ABC radio.

"We are a national organisation, and currently about 95 per cent of all flights in Australian airspace are already managed from our Melbourne and Brisbane centres.

"Where the local knowledge really does come to the fore is obviously in that tower environment."

Civil Air Australia union president Daryl Hickey said traffic controllers were responsible for guiding police and emergency helicopters, as well as commercial planes.

"The local knowledge of terrain and weather is crucial to be able to do that well," he said.

"I think it'd be wrong to say that it is not unsafe."

Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan has written to the federal government to express concern about the move, saying there had been little consultation with his department or local industry.