Totally off sync with what this thread is mainly about, but it seems to have partly devolved into a discussion on "national priorities". I totally agree with "Heathrow Director". In my nearly 40 years as a controller working in Aus, Dubai and now Hong Kong, I have never seen any favouritisms handed out to any airline/national group. As HD above says, there are circumstances where we have to fiddle to make things work. Just two nights ago, at nearly midnight, I taxyied a Cathay 747 past at least 10 other departing taxying aircraft to the 07R holding point because of a slot time issue over the Bay of Bengal for god's sake (nearly 3 flying hours away). Did the South African that was passed whinge, or the Alitalia, Air France, Swiss? No. Can't imagine any of the Cathay guys that were overtaken bleating. If there is one thing that get's me going with airline pilots, and that is the issue of "I was diddled". I often get Cathay guys saying to me "In Singapore...blah blah, Singapore Airlines always No 1...." etc. Well please explain to me, when you have a continuous line of arrivals that may stretch for the next 5 hours, and will consist of predominately local airlines, how the ATC system can start to do favours? It is my experience that we just try to proccess the inbounds to a landing that will be as fair as possible to most users, and will cause the least wear and tear on the ATC system. If HD has implied that UK pilots were the main culprits in the UK for whingeing, then it was the old Ansett/TAA crowd in Australia many years ago that were the same for me. Now I wait for the incomings. What is that old saying "Hell hath no fury like a
pilot scorned!"
