Air traffic control restrictions are getting out of control

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mvg
Posts: 139
Joined: 08 Jun 2017, 04:30

Re: Air traffic control restrictions are getting out of control

Post by mvg »

SR20 wrote: 23 Sep 2018, 08:23
mvg wrote: 23 Sep 2018, 07:14 It would be really sad to create delay with traffic numbers well under the declared capacities.

EBBR with 2 independant parallel runways has a capacity far above the demand (around 700 movements per day).

Heathrow has 1400 movements per day also with two parallel runways, a very complex airspace and many restrictions on night flights.

Same for the belgian regional airports.
Besides airport delay, there is also en-route delay, don't forget that !
You are right. But Belgocontrol's responsibility ends up at FL245: that's more an approach service than en-route. The real en-route traffic flies well above Belgium and Brussels controls deals only with flights descending/climbing in and out of Brussels, Cologne, Dusseldorf and Amsterdam (for a few thousand feet) and some regional airports, almost no overflights.
Moreover some sectors are always combined (24/24 365/365): if the max capacity is reached they just have to open an extra sector which they never do. Not enough traffic means no delay.

SR20
Posts: 691
Joined: 17 Apr 2017, 09:14

Re: Air traffic control restrictions are getting out of control

Post by SR20 »

mvg wrote: 23 Sep 2018, 11:20 You are right. But Belgocontrol's responsibility ends up at FL245: that's more an approach service than en-route. The real en-route traffic flies well above Belgium and Brussels controls deals only with flights descending/climbing in and out of Brussels, Cologne, Dusseldorf and Amsterdam (for a few thousand feet) and some regional airports, almost no overflights.
Moreover some sectors are always combined (24/24 365/365): if the max capacity is reached they just have to open an extra sector which they never do. Not enough traffic means no delay.
Of course Belgocontrol's responsibility ends up at FL245. But more and more traffic is kept below FL245 to avoid flow restrictions imposed by Maastricht UAC, increasing belgian ATCO's workload.
You're right again when you say that some sectors are usually combined. But don't forget that you need extra controllers to split a sector, and they're not always available due to chronicle staff shortage ! That's what explains most of the time the regulations imposed on Brussels sectors.
And don't forget that dealing with overflights only is usually much more easy than with a mixed traffic !

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