Flow control

[Glennm]

When I worked at Eastern Australia Airlines in the 80s in Newcastle the pilots had a number for flow control in Sydney where they rang up before departure to get a slot time into Sydney to avoid holding. Do they still have a similar system now? The reason i asked is that i noticed a Rex plane holding west of Newcastle on its way to Sydney only 15 min after it took off off from Williamtown.
Thanks in advance..
Glenn

[Radi K]

When they run a Ground Delay Program (GDP) you need to get a Calculated Off Blocks Time (COBT) from the Network Ops Centre (or most airlines can do it themselves).

Even still- airborne holding of up to 20 mins can be expected even when a GDP is running or not.

Seems a little wasteful but then again, how an aircraft can fly for 14+ hours (sometimes half of which can be inside the Australian airspace - even at max speed to make up for a delay) and then still get told to hold for 10-30 mins about 100 miles from Sydney is beyond me. The delay program into Sydney and the feeder fixes - even on a normal good weather day is incredibly complex and confusing.

[Glennm]

Thanks for the detailed answer Radi. Much appreciated.