Saxonbloke, read post #35, paragraph 7. If what Daermon says is true, the apparent English-language improficiency of certain Spanish controllers is more to blame than their being obstinate or petulant. Unprofessional maybe, if you take their lack of English-language training into account. Albeit not necessarily their own fault, when a flawed system allows it to happen in the first place.
Rather than take the risk of giving a long-winded and potentially confusing instruction in English to a non-Spanish pilot, so that their aircraft may take up a suddenly-available space in an approach sequence (or taxi sequence), it's evidently easier and safer for them to continue giving short, sharp instructions in their own mother tongue to Spanish carriers and maintain some form of manageable flow, while non-Spanish carriers remain in the hold. At least that's my understanding of it...
Likewise, Quintilian now reveals that he/she does the same with charter carriers in Scandinavia, be it for poor English proficiency on behalf of the pilots or their lack of familiarity with local procedures or potential "short cuts". As a matter of interest, Quintilian, where might these charter carrier pilots originate from, roughly speaking? My experience of them in seemingly unfamiliar territory has been acceptable overall. Normally, at least one of the crew has a reasonably good command of English and generally, the more they fly the route, the more aware and responsive they become to local procedures, phraseology and cheeky short cuts. It would seem that the same cannot be said for controllers, however, as they are often alone in a single sector and don't have a more proficient tongue to help them when they get stuck for words.
Perhaps what this thread should really be addressing is that maybe the level of English-language training is worse in some countries than in others, for both controllers and pilots? Is ICAO Level 4 really an acceptable minimum level of proficiency? How credible are certain training institutes like SENASA in Madrid (or elsewhere) when it comes to issuing so-called Level 4 language certificates? And regarding local procedures and potential shortcuts, perhaps these should be banned to give everyone an equal approach? But this completely flies in the face of safely expediting traffic, our objective.
So surely the onus is on the pilot and controller (and ultimately the airline, ANSP and training institute) to be fully up to speed and proficient in the
universal aviation language, English. Otherwise, let them pay the extra fuel bill, and not necessarily the airlines. Easier said than done of course, when the system itself is flawed...
