Knowing your gate/stand ?

[punk666]

Hi

How do you know what stand/gate your on when landing?

I know this sounds dumb but on a few occasions i have seen the pilots on videos and heard them also call up the company and tell them are ETA and Pax numbers and what stand we would expect upon landing.

On other occasions ground tell the pilots what stand after vacating the runway.

So what is the right way or does it depend on the Services provided at the airport and how busy they are ?

[Field In Sight]

Where I work in the UK, we call our handling agent just prior to descent. Most of the time they tell us where we are parking, sometimes they tell us it will be "allocated on arrival".

However, even if we have been told where we will be going, things change and you just go where you are told when you land.

[mrdeux]

Sometimes ACARS, sometimes radio to the company, and occasionally ground if there has been a late change.

[punk666]

Thanks for the replies.
So is that a company SOP to call the handling agent then?

[G SXTY]

Not always, in fact at my airline it's SOP not to call them under normal circumstances, to avoid any single-pilot stuff during the arrival phase. Not a bad idea, as often the handling agents don't answer the radio anyway.

ATC will advise the stand once we taxi clear of the runway.