Originally Posted by
TwoFiftyBelowTen
So Airservices Australia publishes "flex" routes daily from various ports to Sydney to optimize fuel burn and take advantage of the most favourable winds, and the same office that generates these routes also runs a program to penalise ("deprioritize") flights that gain too much advantage of their wonderful "flex tracks" and arrive too far ahead of schedule....
....so what is the point of all of this?
Flex tracks are to save fuel, time and money to give user-preferred routes. The landing slots are allocated to reduce delays, and hopefully, save fuel, time and money. Aircraft are "deprioritized" to avoid/reduce instances of pilots arriving earlier than their slots and increasing congestion, delaying compliant aircraft. The procedure has been discussed with Industry and they are in agreement.
Are you saying that the flex track was too efficient or did you simply fail to do your maths? Often I see aircraft arrive earlier than gate slot, was their flex track too efficient, or is it another case of the pilot not doing their maths? Or, is on-time performance (as measured reference the ETD) taking precedence over common-sense?