To correct a poster above concerning AL fuel and point merge in Dublin.....At off peak times our flight plans have the shorter Xray point merge arcs. At peak times they have the full Lima arrivals. The LIDO flight plans will take into account the burn and constraints depending on which arrival is filed. ATC cannot and will never ever give us the shorter Xray point merge STAR as it doesn't exist in their world. But it does in LIDO and Jeppesen charts and presumably the Irish AIP.
As pilots we plan on the worst case scenario since we cannot at this point in time do a midair refuel in an Airbus. Consequently if filed on the shorter X-ray arrival most will carry extra to account for having to do the full Lima arrival if its busy.
I understand a half way house between the two is under consideration.
On another note what's the end game? If it ain't broke why try and fix something when a radar vector will suffice. Is it all about reducing the number of controllers? A side effect will surely be a loss of radar vectoring skills.
If you need some tips on how a single runway airport should operate then Lgw is a short ride away. If you want to see 3nm separation in action then LHR is by slick. 250kt below 10, 220 on base, 180 on loc capture and 160 till 4 down the glide covers all types at LHR. If you let an RJ or ATR slow up at 15nm cos they want to then clearly you aren't going to get the best runway utilisation levels.