Doha Airport. Qatar
Good morning,
I operate into and out of Doha airport, State of Qatar a couple of times per month.
Just a few comments and questions regarding the controlling here,
From the approach side,
More often than not the standard of controlling is quiet good. There has been a number of expat controllers {mainly controllers from UK airports} employed in the last 12-18months who I just admit are exceptionally good and well able to handle the large amount of arrivals from all directions without STARS and a lot of restrictions on airspace. I.E from Bahrain and UAE as I understand.
There seems to be a lack of commutation from the surrounding area airspace and Doha ACC as when we are approaching our descent points, we are given speed Mach and Indicated to fly during descent and routings and then on handover to Doha its totally the opposite, massive shortcut , which we are too high on the “profile” etc. Its very repetitive example of poor planning here as well as given high speeds then approaching 10000ft sent to a hold for a lap.
With regards to the tower, the approach controllers seem not to be tower rated? Not entirely sure here.
From my understanding peak time is 0700 – 0900 and from 2200 till 0100 with a large amount of arrivals and depts. There is a ground frequency here and it’s rarely in use. Of course the use of PDC for clearance has reduced the RT calls for clearance there is massive congestion on the frequency. Aircraft stepping on each other requesting push and others calling for taxi and others receiving T/O clearance and heli’s looking for lift for the rigs makes it impossible to communicate effectively, however the controllers do there best to operate in less than adequate conditions.
Any controllers here from Doha? Like to comment...