Just a few points about CIA and non standard departures. CIA is not the primary airport it is a secondary so it is known for delays especially when things go wrong at FCO. It only has one approach in, which is an ILS to 15 and if you have to use 33 you have to circle so it does cause delays. FCO on the other hand has approaches to all sides 16 and 34 so the traffic flows. CIA ATC tries its best but cannot overcome the shortcomings of the airfield location. Runway 15 is used for landing even with a tailwind, but for take-off it is performance limiting, and when it is hot and you are full you cannot take 15 with tailwind as sometimes wind interpretation is very subjective depending on how keen one is to see you take-off. Just as ATC wants us to go, so do we want to go, but safety is always on our mind, before time schedule. It is not uncommon for FCO to be using runway 34 for departures, and CIA insisiting for runway 15 beacuse of inbound traffic. Even if these guys are circling, they are still coming in from the wrong side. There is no such thing as non standard departure, nor is there a reason for any of us to play games with ATC, however, if the numbers do not work, they do not work. One would think that smarter guys than us flying the line would have come up with ideas about mixing inbound and outbound traffic, but it all depends on flexibility and desire to increase movements. LHR, STN, and FCO are major airports located in areas where departures and arrivals do not mix beacuse of topographical shortcomings hence not an option for runway selection. In CIA however you have the mountains to the south, and even on an 737-800 on a warm day you cannot take off on runway 15.
I think that the pilots of EJ were probably tired and frustated with the situation and complained about ATC
JP
