Hi Ferris
Yes I'm UK only - said that in my earlier post.
We watch way out past ORSAR on the COD position and appreciate that you have little time to get the a/c down. What are your standing agreements & liasion with Bahrain & Muscat like? Can they not start the process off for you? The UAE FIR is pretty small and obviously the problem goes further. A post by one of the Muscat guys earlier that answered a lot of our "why are they doing that..?" questions.
Just as there is not enough coordination internally within the UAE FIR units there also seems to be too little externally at the higher echelons and as usual we the ATCOs and the a/c crews are the ones who have to pick up the pieces.
What is clear about our holding debate (and we could go on firing ideas and counter proposals backwards and forwards for ever) is that there are many ways to do it, almost all of which are better than the way it is done now. I don't think there is any point continuing the holding debate on Pprune. We need to take it to a joint DXB / UAE ACC working group or whatever and thrash out a new system that we can all buy into. Are you involved in the promised-but-not-yet-forthcoming Airspace Review? It needs operational people from both DXB and ACC that are enthusiastic and committed to be involved right from the beginning or we'll just get another version of what we've got now & that would be a disaster.
What is also clear is that the standard of controlling at both units varies enormously. That is a problem that needs to be tackled asap and the sims need to be made use of more. One of our problems at DXB is becoming one of increasing staff disatisfaction across a wide range of issues such as pay & allowances, exchange rates, medical cover etc etc etc that is leading directly to greater apathy and less commitment to customer service.
Our senior company management needs to find ways to motivate the staff (not just with money - but that would be nice too) and some of the operational problems might also be reduced too. Customer dissatisfaction will eventually lead to an impact on the bottom line and contract retention issues. They might sit up and pay attention then. You only need to look at the different styles between BA & Virgin in the UK. BA puts the customer above all else - and has had 2 hugely damaging strikes in the past 2-3 years. Branson at Virgin puts his staff first realising that a happy workforce provides good service because they want to. Which model does Serco follow I wonder?
By the way, I'm REALLY not having a go at you area guys and yes I do understand what area does. Further details would compromise anonimity. Obviously you've got your gripes about the way we do things and vice versa - I found those 'beverage cruises' to be a useful way of getting to meet some of your guys and have a decent chat about the important things in life (women, beer and sport obviously). I've been for a visit to the ACC some time ago but should come down again. Liasion visits & fam flights should be compulsory. We've had a couple of your ab initio Nationals up for a cycle's famil which is an excellent idea but we need to see more of the older hands too.
Do you think having the ACC and DXB approach in the same room would solve a lot of these problems? What invite to an EK pilots meeting? First I've heard of it.
EuroATC
Like I said earlier, we need to be flexible and move with the times. I think Serco needs to recruit the most suitable controllers for the job regardless of most other considerations.
Yes there are plenty of people here with lots of good ideas - we have a Tech Comm that represents the staff and puts their ideas forward to management. It has had some success but, for a variety of reasons, not all of them can / have been implemented yet. That is an issue for DXB to tackle. In my opinion the local management is very pro change and wants to make the improvements that the staff put forward but have their hands tied at various levels for various reasons. I'm sure you know what I mean.
The UK controller in question does have busy tower experience that we at DXB can use to our advantage. The management here has changed - why not re-apply to the MATC again? Oh, by the way we are here to train. Serco's contract is to train Nationals to be ATCOs and eventually replace all the ex-pats. We provide the ATC service in the meantime.
yours concilliatoraly (if there is such a word - if not I've just invented it)
Granny