FO Gyro
I am not in the mood to fight, get involved in any mud slinging, etc but what i suggest is you come and spend a few hours, not a turn around, in the centre and see the problems we have to put up with and then maybe you can see it from our side. I have not got the fingers to type a response to your reply, but do come and see what we have to do and how we do it. IF you ask us nicely we can set up the simulator for you and you can try your hand at controlling and see how to do it as well!
Then your perspective might change- if you have got problems then you should see what we have to put up with and then you realise you have got no problems at all. ATNS has gone to huge steps to accomodate the increase in traffic - the same cannot be said for ACSA - if the airports we better laid out and better designed to handle a/c we could move even more - remember delays are often put down to ATC when we have nothing to do with it. You only have to look at the layout of aprons in this country - 1 way in and 1 way out with no options. When you have third world airports with a first world ATC system you are heading for problems. Amongst other problems we have to consider is runway utilisation and occupation. Sure you get frustrated with us when we wont let u start, but have you also thought that sometimes we prefer to keep a/c in the bays, otherwise there will just be a traffic jam at the hold and I think (I might be wrong but I dont think so) most pilots would rather sit at the gate than at the hold burning fuel?
All i am going to say is if slots, CTOTs etc hinder your operation when you are ready, have you thought of the chaos that would happen if we just let anyone go when they wanted to and let them do what they want to do.
The important thing to realise about slots is that they are not ATC issued - they are issued by an IATA co-ordinating committee twice a year when all the airlines get together and discuss them - so if slots are a problem I suggest you take it up with your IATA co-ordinator. (ATNS has no input on slot allocation at all!) You might also like to spend some time with him/her seeing how they work the slot system. It might not be perfect but it sure reduces the peaks and troughs and makes a more even flow of traffic and together with Maestro will go a long way to making the system better and more ordered. What is Maestro you ask - come and visit the centre and see what it is! It is a good system and worth coming to the centre to see what/how it is.
Happy economic flying - it will be my pleasure to show you around the centre