Exiting from RWY07L
Great point to illustrate what ATC is trying to do.
1st is minimising runway occupancy and ensuring separation. Ground flow patterns and expeditious taxi routes are always secondary. TWR and GMC work together as a team to achieve this and runway traffic will always have priority over ground traffic.
A7 onto V: Standard practice is to clear the aircraft onto "V hold short H, remain this frequency". Clear the next aircraft to land. Then come back to monitor the aircraft vacating. If they've progressed onto V and still moving away from the runway, they're switched to GMC. Very straight forward and a good catch point if the crew get confused in that intersection. All on the TWR frequency.
A7 onto W: If expecting W or given A hold short of W and then quickly transferred due to the short taxi, many crews come to a complete stop and change frequency. It is not uncommon to have locally based crews as well as transient ones to be on a high speed exit with half the aircraft straddling the holding point, ie not clear of the runway and with the next landing in the flare. Simply because the entire focus has shifted to ensuring they get taxiway W. Priority is the runway and separation. If you miss W, no big deal. A8 and a U turn onto B. All quite manageable and SAFE. Also ensures a continuous flow of traffic.
A8 onto A east bound. The same circumstance applies here. Aircrew vacate, most are aware of their bay and if the shortest taxi route is A8 - B7, they will prop on the high speed. All focus is out the front of the aircraft and another high percentage will come to a complete stop on the HIGH SPEED EXIT. There are many options to ATC from this position, so if we are all about safety, efficiency and retaining the movement rate, exiting onto A is the priority. Shortest taxi route is a bonus only. With tight final spacing a Go Round becomes a high probability. Just place yourself in the landing aircraft and I'm sure you'll understand where the focus should be.
A7 onto A eastbound This is the latent confliction. The landing TWR controller usually has ample separation with the aircraft vacating, instructs "A eastbound, contact GMC". Very common scenario is that aircraft vacates, comes to an excessively slow taxi speed and the next landing aircraft rolls to vacate at A8. A perfect intercept and the aircraft are on different frequencies. With minimum separation on final, the next landing, the third aircraft in the parcel, is now in the flare. Sometimes the situation develops quite quickly when it becomes apparent the second landing aircraft misses A7. GMC on the north apron can be quite complex and a high workload. ATC has strategies to handle the situation, but the overriding issue should be, when exiting and taxiing A eastbound, that you maintain a reasonable taxi speed onto A and clear the runway.
So if you miss W or A8 - B7, no problem. This is safe and expeditious to the overall runway performance. Airmanship will always provide the correct answer.
Retain some situational awareness of the traffic behind you and the mantra is land and vacate expeditiously onto A and retain a reasonable taxi speed.
Missing a taxiway and adding 60 seconds of taxi time is details in the scheme of things. Exiting in the same direction as the landing adds to gradual deceleration and not an abrupt pull up. The more compact the arrival sequence, the more the need for this discipline. To not stop or come to a crawl on a HIGH SPEED EXIT should need no amplification. The traffic in the flare is in a much more dynamic and critical phase of flight and will always be afforded priority.Shortest taxi routes are a distant second. Having said that, I would estimate they are achieved in 90% of arrivals. Unfortunately, some of that percentage is when it shouldn't have been and this reinforces a bad practice and expectation. Probably quite acceptable at 700 movements a day. WE need to change our habits to match the movement rate.
One other issue, is that ATC has a short window of opportunity to communicate with landing traffic on roll-out. If you are still in reverse thrust and at a reasonable speed, we are reluctant to transmit instructions as you decelerate. It becomes a bit of an art form as to when to pass the instructions. Other traffic can also block those opportunities as they check in on frequency.
Thank you for the post. A valuable opportunity to get our view across. If we could provide video evidence of a broad spectrum of operators at HKIA you would be amazed at the performance and lack of situational awareness being displayed.