theoretically it should be regulated in terms of "first arrived first served" not get Alitalia away then everybody can hold while favouring 16R landings.
I am no ATCO or pilot, and I was only reading this thread out of curiosity, but every time I read something similar to this, I canīt help recalling a conversation I had with a UK tower controller during a visit to an airport tower.
He basically said that foreign airlinesīpilots always complain of ATC favouring local airlines, when it should be a case of "first come first served". He pointed out that that is not how it works, and that they organise departures depending on where they are going to. Like, north departure, east departure, south departure, then north again, east, etc, in order to separate traffic and have some organisation. He say thatīs why they would make some people wait and give preference to other traffic. He also said that, as a very high percentage of the traffic in the airfield consists of local airlines, it was very likely that the aircraft that has been told to take off before you, while you are told to wait, happens to be one from a local airline, which are the majority. He insisted that the preference was given for operational and traffic management reasons, but that most of the controllers of big airports around the world are accused wrongly of giving preference to national airlines.
Well, as I said, Iīm no expert, but it made sense that for whatever reasons, if another aircraft goes before you, there are high chances that itīs going to be a local airline aircraft, as they are the majority. Itīs a case of probability. Say, for example, in LHR, there is a very high probability that the aircraft thatīs making you wait will be BA, Virgin or BMI, as they constitute a very high percentage of the traffic there.
Any ATCOs would like to comment on this? Was he telling me the truth?
Last edited by Vld1977; 29th Dec 2010 at 23:59.