Approach Transition planning

[Driver 170]

Hi, looking to see if any pilots know if there company plan extra track miles for Transitions at Airports.

So for example you have EDDN, this has long Transitions for both runways after the arrival procedure. I see some of the transitions have 60 + nm extra. So does dispatch add more fuel for these extra track miles?

Thanks

[Denti]

Well, that is actually a statistical and safety process. First one has to see how often are the long transitions used, which depends on traffic levels at the time one plans to arrive. And the second one is a safety decision: do we always cater for the worst case or just for the most probable case?

Airlines handle it different, how they handle it changes over time, therefore there is not one answer. For EDDN i would be actually quite happy to plan for the shortest transition, but during normal traffic times (not the pandemic situation we are still in) i would plan for the longest transition at airports like EDDM or EDDF. If the company does not do it, the crew on the day can always decide to take the required fuel for that extra mileage.

[Driver 170]

Hi Denti,

good to see you still commenting on this side. I just checked arrivals on flight radar from west and east inbound flights and pretty much all of them just fly radar headings from the end of the arrival procedure instead of the transition. Like you said maybe pre covid levels you may possibly see flights planning the full transition and flying them and getting short cuts along the way