International dispatching?
- Thread starter MacJohn92
- Start date
MacJohn92
Well-Known Member
Why exactly is Latin America the worst? It's great to hear you enjoy working the Pacific desk.
IMO Africa is worse, but they have some similarities.
Hot and high airports, short runways, terrain.
Flights to/from these places are usually loaded with pax/bags/cargo. I've seen over 2:1 bag
ax ratio on some Carib flights (usually around 0.7:1 on domestic).Some places have only one ILS, some places don't have an ILS at all.
Airport/runway closures, airspace closures can create issues with adequate airport availability to/from "deep South America" (GRU, SCL, etc.)
Don't forget the "one way in, one way out" airports (e.g. San Pedro Sula), where the mountains allow approaches only from one side, and departures go back out the opposite direction. Not the worst thing, but I've seen it catch people out if they're not careful.IMO Africa is worse, but they have some similarities.
Hot and high airports, short runways, terrain.
Flights to/from these places are usually loaded with pax/bags/cargo. I've seen over 2:1 bag
Some places have only one ILS, some places don't have an ILS at all.
Airport/runway closures, airspace closures can create issues with adequate airport availability to/from "deep South America" (GRU, SCL, etc.)
Also, I hear South Asia can be pretty bag-heavy too, although I've never worked it to confirm that.
pljenkins
Resident Knucklehead
Ooof. It's been a minute. From a "non-scheduled" point of view, I think from a purely dispatch aspect, I disliked South America the most. The gymnastics required to file and amend plans was pretty frustrating and if you got the filing wrong, which was easy to do given their sometimes wonky routing and altitude restrictions, they were not very forthcoming with usable information as to why things aren't working or how to correct it. Just a lot of, "Lo siento, inténtalo de nuevo."
Second would be trying to get from Europe to and from anywhere that required transiting Russian airspace. Now, granted, this was a decade and a half ago, but back then they had an annoying tendency to alter the deal you had to cross their airspace, and an even more annoying habit of doing that right when you got there. Of course, the nature of our business in the CRAF probably didn't help. Best experience honestly was dealing with EuroControl. It can be pretty frustrating to figure out, but once you do it's actually pretty intuitive and if you have issues I've found that it was pretty seamless contacting them and finding a resolution. Even when dealing with the French, insofar as it is dealing with the French....
Second would be trying to get from Europe to and from anywhere that required transiting Russian airspace. Now, granted, this was a decade and a half ago, but back then they had an annoying tendency to alter the deal you had to cross their airspace, and an even more annoying habit of doing that right when you got there. Of course, the nature of our business in the CRAF probably didn't help. Best experience honestly was dealing with EuroControl. It can be pretty frustrating to figure out, but once you do it's actually pretty intuitive and if you have issues I've found that it was pretty seamless contacting them and finding a resolution. Even when dealing with the French, insofar as it is dealing with the French....
manniax
Well-met in the Ka-tet
Latin America is the only region I've had issues with airports not wanting to stay open late and claiming they were fogged in, or one time they didn't want my plane to make it in to a particular airport using a CAT II approach because the national airline, which could only do CAT I approaches, had diverted and it would "look bad" in some way if we didn't divert also. (We ended up not diverting after some phone calls were made.) Don't get me wrong, Africa is no picnic either (I've had flights have trouble getting in touch with ATC enroute on numerous occasions), but Latin America, when I worked it, was more frustrating.
Also regarding Russian airspace which @pljenkins mentioned...they could definitely be challenging as well, and difficult to communicate with ATC if you were in a remote area. Since my airline no longer overflies Russia, we no longer do any polar routes, and I don't miss those a bit. Eurocontrol can be frustrating as well at times, but normally once you finally have a route that works, they don't amend it when your flights are airborne.
MacJohn92
Well-Known Member
Thanks for your insight!
TAF_Master
Well-Known Member
All I will say is this. There is a NOTAM for SKRG that is still active on a search as of 01/05/2026 that has a 12/15/2015 EST end date about jet fuel not being available. Apparently in over 10 years, somehow the estimated date was never confirmed to remove that NOTAM and the NOTAM is still technically active....
rogerthatbravo
Well-Known Member
Europe -validating flights
Pacific flights-when the volcano goes off and the VA is in predictable , an you got to keep messing up with your ETOPS circles
Pacific flights-when the volcano goes off and the VA is in predictable , an you got to keep messing up with your ETOPS circles
bbmikej
Well-Known Member
Used to support part 91 with flight planning so I didn't have the bag problems. Europe and Middle East were relatively easy. The system had the RAD built in so it was a good start. Just plug that route into the Eurocontrol website and they would have a route within seconds. Middle East also had designated routes between your entrance and exit points so no guessing there. Brazil on the other hand... Only a Brazilian could actually file the flight plan if you were leaving Brazil so you had to send it down there to a third party who would then submit it (or any changes) to the government.
The real hard part was dealing with aircraft that couldn't overly certain airspace. Back before the Abraham accords, Israeli flights would have a set of lat/long waypoints they would file that would take them out of southern Israel and then along the middle of the Red Sea between Egyptian and Saudi airspace to get to Asia because neither would let them overfly. They were technically uncontrolled at the time kind of like how the Malaysian flight snuck between 2 centers.
I got really good finessing routes during those years.
The real hard part was dealing with aircraft that couldn't overly certain airspace. Back before the Abraham accords, Israeli flights would have a set of lat/long waypoints they would file that would take them out of southern Israel and then along the middle of the Red Sea between Egyptian and Saudi airspace to get to Asia because neither would let them overfly. They were technically uncontrolled at the time kind of like how the Malaysian flight snuck between 2 centers.
I got really good finessing routes during those years.
asapthat123
Well-Known Member
Every area has its challenges. I personally enjoy the pacific theater and inter-Asia region the most. I am not as good on the Atlantic side of things. Europe to Asia flights can be a challenge. So many areas you can’t fly, and if anything bad is gonna go down in the world as far as regional conflicts, it’s most likely going to be in that area. I don’t particularly enjoy dispatching Europe flights and dealing with eurocontrol, but some people love it.
PlaneFan82
Well-Known Member
I love the Atlantic/Europe, followed by Pacific.
Flagship_dxer
Penske Material
A bad day working Latin, Europe, Pacific is better than a good day working domestic flying. It goes very senior for a reason.
Are you saying domestic CONUS is worse than a bad day working other theaters?
I don’t know about that… when things go sideways in Latin America especially, things go real bad operationally. Diversion recoveries are more difficult, ATC is hard to get a hold of, language barriers, and NOTAMs being unreliable…
I prefer Europe myself. I love the North Atlantic, I love dealing with the NMP and Eurocontrol, and with so many good airports in Europe and reasonable weather its a pleasure. I am also Pacific qualified at my carrier, and Hawaii is pretty fun and the South Pacific is unique in its own way. I have been Latin America qualified before but I don't care for the airspace or the other intangibles so I am no longer qualified and I have no desire to be.