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Chances to be granted "direct" by ATC Spain for enroute IFR

denopa wrote:

I got some pretty good directs on Monday.

I used to get similar directs avoiding Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga etc.

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Thanks for the inputs everyone. I’ll be eager to report how it went after the flight .

EDRT, ELLX, Luxembourg

I fly a lot of IFR in Spain and they don’t give directs tracks because of a ruling by Lawyers who have said that if a controler gives a direct routing and there is an incident the controller is personally responsible.

This costs the airlines lots of money and increases the workload on the controllers of adjoining FIR’s as pilots try to get the optimum level before reaching Spanish airspace.

It is not that Spanish controlers don’t want to be helpful it’s just they are constrained by a legal ruling , a year or two back I had to declare a medical emergency ( passenger heart attack ) and the Spanish ATC could not have been more helpful once the emergency situation released them from the constraints of the Lawyers.

Last Edited by A_and_C at 22 Jul 09:30

I have been searching high and low for the restriction on G52 in RAD but found nothing. I am really curious about where it is documented. I could file a ticket with autorouter, but since the problem is not with the autorouter (EuroFPL returns the same errors), I do not feel like asking Achim and Tom to spend time on this.

LFPT, LFPN

A_and_C, I hadn’t flown in Spain for a couple of years but did this week and got a lot of directs.

EGTF, LFTF

Aviathor wrote:

I have been searching high and low for the restriction on G52 in RAD but found nothing. I am really curious about where it is documented. I could file a ticket with autorouter, but since the problem is not with the autorouter (EuroFPL returns the same errors), I do not feel like asking Achim and Tom to spend time on this.

What is the error message and code?

EGTF, EGLK, United Kingdom
What is the error message and code?

See previous posts in this thread like here

LFPT, LFPN

I fly a lot of IFR in Spain and they don’t give directs tracks because of a ruling by Lawyers who have said that if a controler gives a direct routing and there is an incident the controller is personally responsible.

I am afraid this is absolutely false.

Don't get too slow
LECU, Spain

IIRC when I lived there (about 8-10 years ago), the reason for no directs was industrial action by the controllers who did a ‘work-to-contract’ type of slow burning strike. The government of the day had threatened them with removal of some of their – many – privileges and that was the response. I vividly recall every single airliner call for a direct which was met with a ‘negative, fly xx to yy’. I don’t know how and if that was ever resolved.

A_and_C wrote:

I fly a lot of IFR in Spain and they don’t give directs tracks because of a ruling by Lawyers who have said that if a controler gives a direct routing and there is an incident the controller is personally responsible.

speed wrote:

I am afraid this is absolutely false.

A_and_C could you please provide a source? I finally came round to talk to a close friend and very proficient sr. (supervising) controller here at Palma. He said that all controllers in Europe are responsible by law if something goes wrong because of an (in)action, but he is absolutely not aware of a ‘ruling by lawyers’. He did mention that some years ago there was a directive by ENAIRE to quit or minimize direct-to’s because it screwed up international flow control or so, maybe this is what you refer to? But this restriction was soon lifted.. Btw, he considers himself the “champion of direct-to’s and shortcuts” over here and I’m pretty sure he is. He says most controllers provide direct-to’s but some are more careful than others in this respect.

Last Edited by aart at 26 Aug 08:49
Private field, Mallorca, Spain
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