Why is it that every time I fly to Spain these days I must:
-Follow the full arrival procedure
-Hold
-Have a slot
-Be in the slot window for pushback but be denied to go
-Follow full SID out again
What a waste of time/ fuel / nerves!! Hold, but we can't give you an EFC time. Oh yes, 4 runways in madrid, but 30 minutes of holding?? In the last year, i've done 1 ONE single lap going into Gatwick! And they have one single runway!
Everywhere else in europe a slot window exists, 5 min before to 10 min after, but spain?? And when I argue on the radio, (I know I shouldn't) I'm told, ATC's discretion mano.
Other day into Malaga, with a Spanish colleague no less, they left us super high on approach, and then a low speed limit of course, so oh good times on the stable approach criteria. Slot at 1118, so allowed to start at 1113, and then finally airborne from 31 after some more faffing about, we had to fly the WHOLE Bailen 1G departure! Are you kidding me??? Severe CAVOK, nobody for miles around, but a "Direct to LOJAS?" was greeted with an "
off and follow standard routing"... We were climbing through 10000ft abeam the field...
The said spanish colleague reconfirmed what I'd already heard. He's got two mates in Spanish ATC whos paycheques are in the 12,000euro a month range. (yes yes the base salary is 3000 a month but did you know that their overtime starts after 1250 hours in a year?) And they think they are the best controllers anywhere!! Hahaha you hombres (and ladies) need to get your heads out of your proverbial *rses and start doing your job. Your work ethic is absolutely attrocious, terrible for the economy, terrible for the environment, and a complete waste of the paying publics time. I'd rather fly to any other European country than Spain any day of the week.
Another problem the said spanish colleague mentioned was that ATC are untouchable. And there is the real problem. Arguing on the radio will only make my headache worse, so not much point in that. Is there any other method of action that can be taken??
Rant over, thank you for your time. You may now return to your regularily scheduled programming.