Ok this is the last post on movement figures as it is hijacking the thread, but I took offense to the comment about it being a doddle in Dubai. Throw a dyce I used the figures from the Gatwick airport website, and if you are talking about peak days and peak periods, then as Dubai has average daily movements of 630 a day, on some days they have over 700. Just as LGW doesn't have high movements at night, and has the traffic compressed into a short period, Dubai has a couple of extremely busy arrival periods (11.00pm-1am from the West and 4am-6am from the East) and a couple of extremely busy departure periods (2.30-4.30am to the East and 1.30am-3am to the Nth and West). And as posted previously LGW movements are growing by between 2.5% and 4% a year, while Dubai traffic has increased by a minimum of 10% every year for the last 3 years, with the airport being one constant building site, with taxiways shut and runways shut or shortened.
Dubai ATC just like the rest of us, is trying there best to hang in there, and is doing so by there fingernails and so being told that we aren't working any traffic and so should get down and pay homage to the mighty UK controllers cos they have so much more traffic than we do, is a crock to be frank. Every place has it's own pressures and is all relative. How many other ATCO's did the guy have in the tower to help him when he wasn't calm enough for you? How long had he gone without a break? How many times had he tried to say the simple transmission to the semi english speaking pilot before you came on frequency? But no you guys have decided that the guys in the UK and Europe have the hardest job in the world and as such are the best in the world, and we are not worthy in the Middle East.