Sonnendec,
I am not sure if there is no respect from the pilot community for the spanish controllers.
However i can understand that the respect goes down a little bit when your fellow controllers pull a stunt like the one below.
Last week on a flight to Malaga. We were maintaining FL340 and an Iberia was at FL360 roughly 5 minutes behind us. Subsequent descent and direct Martin was given by the controller. 5 miles before reaching Martin we received radar vectors and the controller vectored us 90 degrees to the right (away from the airfield) and told us to maintain our level. In the meantime the Iberia was given further descent and cleared to intercept the localiser. While this was going on we were vectored away from Martin by up to 15 miles. Once the Iberia was passed we were given our final vector and cleared to intercept the localiser.
As you can imagine we were a bit pissed off. And indeed the respect for that controller disappeared as snow in the sun. And just for your information the Iberia was 15 miles behind us when we received our first vector.
Unfortunately this happens fairly regular. However this doesn't mean that all controllers would do the same. It's probably the same with us pilots. You got loads of good ones and a few bad ones who spoil the show for everybody.
FT
