Originally Posted by
BackPacker
I guess that depends on your point of view. ATC has the same amount of work, regardless of whether it's a 2000 kg SEP or an A380. In fact, arguably ATC needs to spend proportionally more time with GA than with A380s, as GA generally flies slower and thus spends more time in a certain bit of airspace. However, the ATC charges are based on (the square root of) the MTOW, so the big boys pay significantly more for the same service.
I don't know anything about the flying side of things, but as an ATCO low and slow traffic around the London TMA is considerably more difficult to deal with as everything else is going a lot quicker and it's always in the way. We don't mind, as that's what we're here for, but our lives are far easier when it's a load of jets that are all doing very similar speeds. Our traffic prediction devices, for London area control, give each flight a complexity weighting as it goes through a sector and low and slows attract a higher complexity rating than a jet doing the same flight
Again like I said, we don't mind - I'm not having a go at anyone who wants to use the airways as they're there to be used - I was just saying in a slightly convoluted way that they're not the same amount of work.