Taxi procedures at BCN

[TE RANGI]

The most ridiculous ever taxi procedures are now in operation at BCN airport.

Just as an example: When landing on 25L you have to cross no less than four times runway 20 plus one time 25R to get to your stand. And then departing aircraft on 25R cannot use the full paved length. Not to mention the 15-20 minutes taxiing in time!

The soundness of the design, and the sanity of the designers and the ATC serving such an inane procedure has left me wondering. Even their radio phraseology sounds laughable. How long before anyone tells them?

[The Greaser]

By far the worst ATC i have experienced in Europe. This place is a major accident waiting to happen, hopefully things will be improved soon.

[Kraut]

You are right. Taxi there after landing on 25L is a waste of time and therefore also waste of money.
But at least you can cross 25R fairly fast, because taking off traffic from 25R is just NOT taking full RWY lenght for take off. And this system gives ATC some kind of "standard operation"

What to do? Use RWY 20/02 direct to taxi? Than you have to cross the active T/O runway 25R?! This would save time.
But how about the safety aspect of crossing active runways?

This is similar done in FRA after landing on 25L to cross 25R.

I do not support the BCN taxi procedures, but I hope the spanish are working on any kind of improvement. Remenber, they still have heavy "work in progress"!

[longarm]

Considering the work being undertaken at BCN the procedures aren't to difficult to follow. Yes you need to cross 20 numerous times but it is normally notified as closed on the ATIS when 25L/R are in use. And yes you can't use the full length on 25R for departure, but the runway is not exactly short, do you really ever need full length.

[Cat O' Nine Tails]

Ladies and gentlemen,

Having been based here in BCN for the last eight months I feel that I can comment acurately as to the pros and cons.

Cons (as i always like to finish on the positive :D )

The inordinate amount of taxi time required when the new runway is in operation. This should improve when the new terminal is built but until then god help us all!

The actual ATC is very poor with frequent mispronunciation and understanding of 2 versus 3. EG Cleared to land on 35L as opposed to 25L.

The frequent runway changes from 25R for take Off then deciding that 20 would be used. In actual fact I remember returning to BCN from PMI one night and having been given three different approaches within the space of six minutes (maybe a record there!).

What I call the Spanish Syndrome! Spaniards love to talk sadly from experience it is more talk and less work, which in atc terms sometimes you cannot get a word in edgways.

RT Etiquette is quite seriously lacking here too especially with foreign pilots.

Nepotism in favour of IBERIA. - I work for a spanish carrier and i've personally had occasion when I've been fully ready to taxi with brakes released and denied taxi clearance whilst the controller was desperately trying to get the md80 in front of me away whom hadn't even got engine 1 going yet, and was trying to chivvy him along in spanish to get him ahead of us.

Distinct lack of jet performance knowledge. On numerous occasions I've been allowed to fly hi-speed (320-340kts) then been asked to slow 250 then 10 seconds later reduce 180 all within the space of 1 minute.

Pushback and taxi clearances that almost end up with two aircraft nose to nose.

These are but a few of the more memorable cons, now for the pros.

Where abouts in europe at an airport of similar size do you get visual approach clearances and are pretty much left to your own devices.

Where in europe would they delay departing aircraft so that we could land on 07L because my colleague wanted to catch the last flight to Palma and would miss it if we were to land on 07R.

Where would you get "have a nice flight" with every change of frequency....?


My point:
although the cons far outweigh the pros, barcelona is a great airport to be based at and I'm sure that when the works are completed circa 2007 most of the taxi gripes etc should disappear.

As for the ATC itself, Barcelona is a big training facility and as such numerous mistakes are commonplace which I do not condone, but we all had to learn.

Eventually they do welcome foreigners when the get to know you. a sort of hearts and minds episode :D.

Having now aired my experiences here, it is a fun place to operate out of most of the time.

[king cotton]

Hey Cat !

You sound familiar....Have you ever flown for another cat...." Cat o' red tail " ?!?!
Taxi's a bit awkward in BCN but by far... not the worst,
and for some of us its probably worth having a good look at the up dated version of the part " C "....

Salut Cat

[Vizcaya]

Good mornin´ mate!

Wake up and smell the coffee! ;)

It´s old news. (http://pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=146826&highlight=BCN)

You´re right though, it´s an accident waiting to happen IMHO! :(