An interesting thread following on from the R/T discussion !
My summary .........
1. EK pilots are by far the most professional in the ME, if they get special "treatment" at LHR or other places then big deal, compared to the other operators in the ME (MSR, QTR) they are tops. At least they monitor the freq and answer first time. Yes, some spacing is excessive, but after repeating the same thing 3 or 4 times to some drongo on the other end of the radio, plan "A" is always going to turn out differently after running an extra 15 track miles playing 20 questions.
2. I started a thread some weeks ago asking pilots if they are able to meet separation requirments when instructed to make a time over a fix, as we have been attempting to do for some months to create some sort of arrival flow into one of our units. The summary was yes, but many pilots choose not to follow the requirement and couldnt care less.
3. Based on that, timed flow control has been largly abandoned, and we will not bother vectoring A/C all over the FIR to create gaps, we have got the go ahead to hold everybody and use timed approaches from the hold. Hopefully it will catch-on and be used more widely in the region.
4. Air Traffic Management in the ME is non-existant, the airspace is poorly designed and the route structure creates more conflicts than it solves. What worked 10 years ago is not suitable for the traffic in the ME today (and tomorrow, or for the next 15+ years)
5. On this thread some Pilots and ATC may be bitching about each other, but the common theme is that they all recognise that the current airspace around DXB and adjacent FIR's (and all of the associated procedures) is inadequate and inefficient.
6. There is no prevention and there is no concept of forward planning. It will require a major incident to invoke any change. Many people have given up trying to make the airspace safer and more efficient, more time is spent just maintaining basic separation, so therefore efficiency and finese have been pushed aside.
7. Even if the local management push for changes they are still governed by the CAA and other "interested parties" higher up, or by an adjacent unit who only have their own interests at heart, it is no joy ride for them either.
8. Yes, DXB is the busiest unit in the ME. Based on that, an airspace restructuring exerecise should be conducted centreing on DXB and involving all of the adjacent FIR's in an attempt to create a seamless route structure throughout the ME with flow control procedures for DXB from 200+ miles out.
Yeah, Right.........
