CFMU Helpdesk

[Frosty Hoar]

Just wondered what everyones experiences were of dealing with the CFMU Helpdesk, after 4 years of working in OPS I never can predict what sort of response I will receive from them when dealing with difficult slot issues.

In most cases I get professional service from them, but there are times when I am made to feel as though I am phoning them for the hell of it....are we as airlines seen as customers of the CFMU or as an operational hazard?

:eek: :eek: :( :)

[Confirmed Must Ride]

havent had to deal with them for over a year now due job change, but always used to be quite unhelpful when asked to suggest another route to avoid congestion. Always found I was better off phoning flow

[GWYN]

Hi

My experience it that it is similar to every other area of service provision......depends entirely on which individual you happen to speak to. There are those that are happy to help, and those such as you describe, and of course, those that speak in such a thick Belgian accent that I find it hard to understand. Sorry, but my Flemish is simply not up to conversation in the local dialect!

My major gripe is the quality of the communications - I simply cannot hear what they are saying, it is just too faint. Are they wearing headsets with the microphone wrongly positioned or do they just not talk loudly enough? Am I the only one who finds this?

No, before the smart comments flood in, it is not the quality / state of my hearing. It has been tested! Nor, I might add, do I have the same problem talking to other agencies!

[Flight Data]

Some fair comments raised here but first let me clear up one point - the CFMU Helpdesk is in the flow management ops room whereas IFPS is completely separated. IFPS does not really know where the delays are in Europe, so if you ask us for a reroute, the chances are that we'll try and give one, but it is not particularly easy to know if it'll cause a delay while generally, FMD don't get too involved in reroutes. Strange? Talk to our management.

Staff are from all over Europe, not just Belgium, so the accents are not necessarily Flemish, but I know what you mean as we regularly get the same when we call companies trying to sort out problems. Have you ever tried calling a Turkish or Eastern European flight ops? Generally good, but it can get a bit interesting at times.

The phones are known to be faint, but we cannot find out why - done loads of checks, but nothing shows as a reason, sorry.

As for reroutes in IFPS, don't forget that we do 'em as a favour to you, so when things get a bit busier, we stop offering to help as it would cause even bigger delays in trying to sort out messages in the manual queue. Generally though, we'll normally try to help, but there will always be the luck of the draw in who picks up the call; again, we get some fairly poor reactions on occassion when we try to help out.

We aren't perfect by a wide margin, but you should see some of the bo!!ox that is sent to us, plus the same flight plan with the same errors sent in every day despite us calling to correct it every day. When we get AO visits it generally seems to sort out a lot of misconceptions and problems, so maybe you can sweettalk bosses into organising something (plus the beer here is damned good :D :D :D )

FD

[jumpseater]

I generally find them very helpful, but try not to bother them too much!

[srs what?]

As has already been said it very much depends on who you get but the British I've spoken to there have been very helpful. :)

[Little Blue]

...We had a couple of the guys
in here (Donno Hall) this morning for a gander
and they didn't get the coffees in.....
but they did have to suffer Bobs RAF reminisces (...during the war ......) so that evens it out a bit..
.
Always helpful and on the evidence of the guys that have come over to see our side of the coin, very willing to take on our suggestions....
:)

[Uncle Cracker]

Never had a problem with CFMU/IFPS. I've found them to be very helpful even when they're obviously very busy. Top chaps and chapesses if you ask me.:)

[EL ZIPPO]

I attended a course at CFMU in October which proved to be quite interesting with regards to how it all works. It is nice to actually see the guys that you are speaking to in BRU and how things are from where they sit. The course is free but obviously you have interline, hotac etc to be paid for..See link below.

EZ

http://www.cfmu.eurocontrol.be/courses/index.html

[fcit]

Totally agree that it certainly depends on whom you speak to. Usually, if I get the response "you have the average delay" before I even stated the flight number tends to get me a little stingy, but than I had exceptional helpful officers on the other end that did go above and beyond to get a flight out.

As far as I know you do need a controllers license to work the OPS room in FMD.

I would appreciate if dispatchers could also be given the chance (just to represent the AOs side, as well).

As for IFPS, I can only say that I have mostly had positive experience.

Cheers
fcit

[routechecker]

Hi,

I would just like to add a couple of points.

Rescue3

IFPS can give you a rerouteing. Of couse if the restriction is on departure or arrival theres no way a change of route is going to be of any help. However if it's enroute most of the time something can be arranged. A lot of Bizjet/Coorporate pilots have got the hang of this now, and do it on a regular basis.
The drawback is of couse that you might even get a bigger delay (does not happens very often). Pre coordination with the FMD (by the way it's called ETFMS these days) allows to come back to the original routeing and you just take the delay.
EL ZIPPO

Also, if it's impossible to have people going to Brussels or Bretigny, it can be arranged for someone from CFMU to go to your company and give a presentation.

[The Colonel]

The course is well worth it. An eye opener if anything. Even a visit would enhance an Ops persons perception of how things are done. Ops depts will always want everything they can get from CFMU/IFPS etc especially on a bad flow day. Sometimes they can't always come up with the miracles we require. Have had good help from the helpdesk this year. They are always evaluating their working practises which is a good thing and this can only help for next year.
Go and have a look see, do the course and try the beer. The canteen is superb!!!
;)

[Frosty Hoar]

Thanks for the feedback;

I must say that I have always had a very good service experience from IFPU1/2 and with the free text editor in use now I hope to limit calls to them even further.

In terms of the FMD helpdesk, I often get the impression that they are undermanned during busy periods, and I can imagine their irritation at receiving continuous phonecalls from OPS guys asking for CTOT improvement, however, I was reminded of one exchange between a british ops guy and a french helpdesk operator in BRU;

OPS " Morning, any possibility to improve slot on xxxxxx we have more than the average delay etc.."

BRU " Ang on sir I will ask le compooter"

sound of footsteps...

2mins later..

BRU " I ave asked le compooter"

OPS "and??"

BRU " He says no!" ;)