Spanish ATC

[flameproof]

Tying into the post by DjerbaDevil, if one looks at the AIPs (AD) for EGLL and LEBL, we notice:

- EGLL has four frequencies assigned to APP, one main and three used as instructed by ATC. LEBL has seven frequencies assigned to APP. It's curious that in the 'Remarks' column, the frequencies are marked as APP-H, APP-I and APP-L, while there is no definition of their meaning, one could guess "high", "intermediate" and "low".

- EGLL has one full-time frequency for TWR, and another used 0700-2200 or as instructed, for busy periods. LEBL has two frequencies for TWR, apparently full-time.

- EGLL has one frequency for delivery, which is not full-time. LEBL has also one frequency for delivery.

- EGLL has three GMC frequencies. LEBL has five GMC frequencies, marked as "GMC SC", "GMC W", "GMC E", "GMC SS", and "GMC SN". Again, there is no indication as to what the letters after GMC mean.

Now, for the numbers (taken from official BAA and AENA statistics):

- EGLL handled, in 2008, 67 million passengers and 322,000 movements.
- LEBL handled, in 2008, 30 million passengers and 152,000 movements.

Roughly, LEBL handled 47% of EGLL's movement load, and 45% of EGLL's passenger load. In absolute terms, London Heathrow handled one movement every 1.6 minutes, whereas Barcelona handled one movement every 3.5 minutes.

Does this tally with the number of assigned frequencies? Someone above mentioned every active frequency in Spain has TWO controllers assigned to it, one handling the phones and the other the radio. If Barcelona has many more APP frequencies, the logic should be that it is so due to the large number of movements - how can Heathrow cope with less? As for GMC, Barcelona is again over-resourced, as it has two more frequencies than Heathrow, and again, not as many movements.

Pilots who regularly fly to/from these two airfields could chip in - IMHO, at least in Barcelona, ATC is over-staffed for the number of movements it has, no wonder the controllers "ran out of hours" before year's end.