Originally Posted by
Busdriver01
I was flying into Gatwick tonight and we ended up at least 70nm off track from the timba arrival, overhead Margate. We heard lots of traffic trying to get to LCY
Flying out to Margate etc, and even holding out there, is pretty standard stuff nowadays for LCY arrivals from the opposite direction, leading to the seemingly improbable situation of evening Dublin-LCY arrivals giving a view of the lights of the Northern French coastline. This was introduced a few years ago in lieu of the old direct inward route overhead Lambourne. It was meant to "improve" things, but as so often reality went the other way.
LCY has a strict policy in the morning/evening peaks of only 30 minutes turnrounds, and the stand numbers are more than adequate with this for the capacity of the runway, but the issues arise when departures cannot be accepted - quite possibly because of inbounds taking up airspace holding for them to leave !