Europe is complicated because of the volume of traffic on different routes and the ridiculous proximity of many major airports. I know many controllers that aren't keen on frequency changes either as they cause unnecessary transmissions as aircraft call in - but unfortunately one can only effectively control a limited amount of aircraft at a time.

As for the headings around London: That's the only way to keep traffic separated and moving. It's that full.

S.

It's Europe. It's a jobs program. How about Shanwick and Gander Oceanic?

From Dani

"Using voice on an amplitude-modulated radio frequency is so outdated as if we still would fly with biplanes. There is only one solution for this mess: Datalink. How many errors happen on an average flight just because of missunderstandings, communication errors and radio wave phenomen..."

I agree. ATC communication seems to be a big rigmarol for relatively simple communications (Who I am, where I am, where I am going, how high I am and what I want to do - "OK, continue"). With numerous hand-on's between controllers, is that not a big hole appearing in the cheese? The whole system needs a complete re-think from top to bottom.

Somebody once said the US system runs on obsolete computers but to change them out would be like "performing brain surgery on someone while they are driving a car" - a great analogy!