Great thread, I was aware you AUH ATCO's had your hands tied, but was not aware of the full scope of it. You must get pretty frustrated by it, I know we do and we only have to deal with it a few times a month.
If pilots get snappy or sound frustrated, it is usually because we are task fixated on flying the plane as efficiently as we can, always trying to anticipate what is coming next (and yes, get home to the pub).
Threads like this are extremely important to raising our awareness of all the issues in our environment.
Thanks
