SMOC REPLY
1. Runway allocation - please come and visit ATC. You need to see 20 or 30 aircraft being considered at a time. Workload simply does not permit devoting perfect handling to individual aircraft.
Not all TWR controllers will assign the South Runway, because if they get it wrong, it can cause significant delays to departures. Simply looking out the cockpit will never give you the 'picture'. For example, today's departure restrictions: Routes V1-V3 +3 minutes , V4 -V5 +3 mins PECAN +4 mins and BEKOL +5. So two taxiways of 15-20 aircraft all staggered in the correct sequence so we can release departures with absolute minimum delay. Then BEKOL changed to +15 minutes. The entire sequence needed to be reset. Aircraft needed to be taken onto the runway and taken upstream to the outbound flow. Then the departures were altered for a composite V1-V5, 2 minutes alternating to 4 minutes and BEKOL back to +10. Another complete reset. So if you happen to land and see no traffic at the hold, there is every possibility that while you were in the flare on 07L that a complete parcel of departures was able to be released and three of them were all critical set course requirements. Put you on a 7NM final 07R and that can't happen. The two GMC positions are always trying to thread aircraft to the holding point with 2 and 3 minute slot windows. This is always transparent to traffic lined up in a queue. So as a runway controller, if you see considerable set course restrictions on outbound traffic, to assign landings to the SOUTH runway, is anti team work and can have drastic consequences for traffic into China or Taiwan if they miss a slot. The coordination process to re-negotiate can involve several controllers, plus incurring a similar impact on any neighbouring ATC unit. Just for one departure. So please don't think surveying a runway gives you the 'picture'.
2. Taxiway exits and instructions: Some explanation of how ATC works. We use segregation of airspace or areas of jurisdiction. It's the same on an airfield as it is in the TMA and En-Route Sectors. Generally speaking we don't talk to each other as it escalates workload dramatically. All interfaces between controllers have very strict protocol for what you can and can't do to avoid coordination. For the case you've mentioned, of vacating from A7, generally, you will be issued taxiway V. This is a standard release of that taxiway from Ground to Tower. GMC is obligated not to infringe it whenever it may be used by exiting traffic. All other traffic not proceeding to the South apron, is issued taxiway A eastbound. This ensures traffic remains separated during the handoff from one controller to the other.
HKIA has insufficient parking bays. What you may not be fully aware of, even though you see them, is the towing arrangements. Generally each hour the GMC's combined will handle between 20 to 30 tows. We give the instructions via our strip system and those are passed to the tractor driver, in Cantonese via a separate radio network. To thread them, generally in the opposite direction to taxiing traffic, can be very time consuming to minimise the impact on in -service aircraft. Delay a tow more than 30 minutes and the company will be on the phone asking its whereabouts. Common practice is to run tows on one taxiway and live traffic on another. Cross field tows will then generally run on V and all live traffic on W. So the simple exit and join V no longer applies.
During Single runway operations, we totally reverse the use of taxiway V and W from dual runway ops. We also have 5 narrow body bays below the TWR that exit directly onto V. These are practically invisible to the GMC positions due to the physical size of the TWR. When these are in use, they also impact how V is handled.
I hope you get my point. There is almost never, a standard way to operate the inter-relationship between TWR and GMC and the use of V. What ATC does do in-house is to give priority to runway traffic. So taxiways A and V are GENERALLY kept clear to allow traffic to land and exit asap and get handed off a dedicated GMC. Any protracted discussion between GMC and TWR is highly undesirable and counter productive. Generally this applies to any pairing of controllers. Coordination is generally last resort. Procedures should eliminate the vast majority. Almost all coordination in the radar environment is 'silent', done using electronic symbology with dedicated meanings.
3. What you want and what the industry demands: What you can accept and what you think your mates can accept is unfortunately not a sound model to run close to maximum movements by. It generally costs time and dramatically increases risk. With one freighter getting the South runway and if it were to impact 6 or more departures the cumulative time loss to the industry can approach 30 minutes with just one landing. Any ATC in a month will observe literally 1000's of flights. 100's of 1000's of flights over a year. What you see or hear during 5 minutes on an ATC frequency is not necessarily representative of as sound assessment of what works and what doesn't. You may well a have an understanding how actions impact you, but not 15 other aircraft. This has nothing to do with status, but aircrew consider ONE aircraft where ATC has to consider numerous aircraft. At 1000+ flights a day, ATC has to provide a safe, predictable and repeatable model to allow traffic to arrive and depart in. Ad hoc and ad lib, has little place in high movement rates. The repercussions go right through the system and invariably impact safety. Having said that, sometimes ATC has to 'make it up' to make it work. We are invariably on increased alert when we do something non-standard.
4. Procedures and where they come from: The majority of our procedures are dictated to us from consultative processes between CAD and the Airline industry. Switching runways at 10NM does not meet any TEM model we know of. ATC obviously is certainly not immune from mistakes and poor judgement, but aircrew need to comprehend the numerics of keeping 33 departures and 33 arrivals moving per hour without integrated flow management, plus all the repositioning of ground traffic, 600+ daily though area flights and the impact they have on virtually every flight into and out of HKIA, all ticking over with the least average delay to all traffic. This is not a simple exercise.
Hopefully this forum will allow us to share with you that what looks simple to you, is in fact quite complex. Do we need to change our procedures and constantly review? Absolutely, but just pitching endless criticisms at current operations without all the facts or understanding the implications of altering traffic patterns wont help.