From my humble experience,
Holding at Europe stations is much much better than holding over the indian continent. The euro controllers are very professional and they are very systematic in managing traffic. It not too difficult to anticipate and plan the arrival in europe.
I had once in VABB, when we arrived at TMA were told the we are number 25 in landing!! After holding for more than an hour, was vectored all over the TMA due weather and landed with just minimum fuel. Felt so lucky that we were tankering that night !!
Furthermore, I had this strange feeling that the local carriers are given priorities over other carriers. Just my personal experience, no facts to support the above statment. When we over fly enroute from Europe back to South East Asia, was told to descend so that their local carrier can occupy the level we were at !! Hmmm.......
