Why is there this mad compulsion in ATC to move away from direct voice communication to typing messages on keyboards?
To ease those frequencies that are completely congested with having to give full routings to all aircraft on first call and other benefits that CPDLC deliver??
I am a controller that really wishes that CPDLC was far more widely available, and that it was far better than it is. 40 second acceptance of a message is totally inappropriate for many instructions, however I find it increasingly useful to transfer some aircraft to the next frequency, to CPDLC full routings (that we currently are not allowed to do in some circumstances) and to obtain the requested cruise level. However as FANS aircraft have to be given even more RTF to disconnect should they not acknowledge a message in time, I avoid using it with any of them unless it is to transfer to a different FIR.
Datalinking has many benefits that would improve ATC systems worldwide, however the beancounters sadly govern how much of it will ever be used and are already overlooking those parts of real potential.