It's all a bit embarrassing really.
ML is the second busiest airport in Australia. Today we had 20 min holding when the conditions on the ground were CAVOK and the ATIS wind was 150/14 and only rwy 16 was being used. This is 5Kt tailwind on rwy 27!!
We even asked for a landing on 27 and that we could accept up to 10kts, but were told "Too much tailwind".
Over Onagi were plenty of aircraft holding and a jet informed ATC that if unless their Waren time improved they'd have to divert due not enough fuel.
Again, CAVOK conditions and 150/14 knots wind with only Rwy 16 available.
I forget the amount of times recently I've been 7 or 8 in line to take-off in CAVOK with less than 10 knots of wind, but only one runway in operation. Again, when requesting another runway to be told "Not available".
Last month we got told that our COBT delay was because 'the flow' was only accepting 20 per hour. Seriously? No cloud below 2500', and again less than 10 knots of wind on the ground. 20 arrivals per hour!
This is nothing to be proud of.
While some of the reasoning by ATC sounds plausible, some of the "reasons" are a little weak, and smack of a public service mentality that is becoming more pervasive in Australia. My favourite one on this thread was:
"Too many aircraft arriving at the same time."
Is the concept of schedules being driven by corporations trying to meet customer expectations a bit beyond someone who's on the public payroll?
Sounds to me like AirServices Australia is content to provide a crap service, and it's OUR fault for wanting something better.
Australia: The worlds fastest growing Mediocracy...