A question for Bahrain ATC

[felixthecat]

Why the last 8 months or so do Bahrain ATC always give a full airways clearance on initial contact ie "cleared UG999-Somewhere-UG998-To somewhere-UG 997-Somewhere else" when its exactly as per the flight plan?

Why not just cleared flight plan route? Saves RT congestion, not to mention pilots scrabbling through the FMC route pages confirming routes only to read back in error followed by a repeat or "as per flight plan"

Its a pain in the behind…..:ugh:

[babotika]

Singapore like to do this too, though it's usually only the first airway ... always curious about why.

S.

[AirNoServicesAustralia]

Main reason is there are some operators (such as Gulf Air) who don't appear to understand that when something in a flight plan changes they don't cancel or change an old plan, and instead just continue submitting flight plan over the top of flight plan to the point where there are sometimes 12 flight plans for the one flight. Most systems dump the newer flight plans in the absence of a cancellation or change message, so the flight plan held by the pilot is often different to the ATC. As a result Bahrain (and the UAE for that matter) clear aircraft waypoint by waypoint until across their FIR.

Hope that answers your question. It may seem inefficient but given the number of aircraft which have unexpectedly turned towards other traffic it is a prudent safety measure unfortunately.

[felixthecat]

Thanks for the info, its good to understand why, makes it a little less painful :O

Exactly what Pprune is for:ok:

[ferris]

Thanks Airno- that is correct. It is also to try and capture the odd flight that flightplans incorrectly- plans aren't vetted here.
The biggest issue arose because some operators were planning (westbound) BALUS-M600/N929-TOBLI-KFA and onwards. The airways structure here requires everyone to be on the standard routes. If a/c turn left at TOBLI towards KFA, they cross UN318 flowing eastbound. That wouldn't be a problem if everyone was in level flight, but QR landers are descending into Doha on the UN318. We have had a number of very nasty incidents. Hence the instruction from management.
It would really help us on the R/T if you guys know we are going to read the route on first contact and have it handy, to read back. Cheers.