I think the Pilots have a justified argument here. We are generally made aware of fuel burn characteristics,but I am always willing to listen to any aircrafts Min clean speed and vector accordingley ( I dont work at KK or LL,where the pressures are higher).
Howevever what must be realised is that if we dont get them off the bottom, then they are going to build up rapidly at the top.
That may be great for fuel burn, holding at 350!, but its cr*p for airspace utilisation.
You can have 4 downwind at or descending to the same altitude ,but only one in the hold at a particular altitude/FL.
It was said earlier that this topic is not about fuel carry. I disagree the rules we were taught as ATC'ers seem to be so different from what the present situation is.
I recentley had a handling agent call me about one of their aircraft,still 40 miles short of the holding facility,asking what the likely delay was because the aircraft had 15 minutes fuel left ( we were holding at the time, not normal,but due to adverse ,unforseen weather). When reminded that we were on a recorded telephone line the agent hung up swiftly.
Another get out these days, seems to be, at airports with more than one runway,using the second runway as your diversion field for fuel planning . Even if the second runway could be made unusable by a problem on the first.
Accountants and Grocers...Napoleon had it right!