Just landed at WSSS on 02C and requested taxi to gate C18, but ATC assigned me gate E5 instead, which was the nearest available. I understand that ground traffic can be busy, but giving instructions to taxi to the nearest gate rather than the requested one takes away from the realism and professionalism of the flight experience. However I don’t understand that he gave that instruction and when I’m turning into apron, he left. I’d continue taxi to my desired gate before I turn into.
Same issue occurred on February 3, 2026 at EGLL. I requested Gate 420 (hold short of runway 09R–27L), I wasn’t even close to the runway. Instead, ATC assigned me Gate 2B near 27L, which was just on my right. Traffic was not particularly busy at the time.
Only when I request taxi to parking I’m free to choose any gates, although ATC rarely assigns one in that case. However, when I specifically request a gate, I’m expected to follow the assigned instructions. If I don’t taxi to the instructed gate, I receive a ‘not following instructions’ warning (not following the taxi instructions).
It would be helpful to have an option for pilots to select their desired gate before landing, so that Tower and Ground ATC are aware of the selection and can possibly prepare a taxi route in advance. Upon landing, the pilot could then request taxi to the pre-selected gate, ensuring better coordination and a more realistic experience. I’ve seen that this feature has already been requested, and I’m looking forward to it being implemented.
I don’t think it’s a feature for ATC to assign you a random parking spot, either “taxi to parking at your discretion” or taxi to parking via…. (The parking spot you give)
I don’t think ATC can assign you a new parking spot, atleast from my training server knowledge
Yeah sometimes ATC’s commands can be frustrating to us. You can contact the ATC controller via this community to get their take on the situation, maybe they will be able to provide you with some feedback or explanation
In fact, we are supposed to let the pilots chose their taxi spot when they request it, and not assign them to a particular chosen gate even while we have the possibility to use drag & taxi in these case too. The best thing to do here is to PM the IFATC who was controlling at this moment to try understanding why he assigned you to this specific gate, sometimes it can just be because of a complicated ground traffic to handle.
This is likely due to a known bug with Drag-and-Taxi where a random gate will appear on the menu instead of the one requested by the pilot.
Hence, controllers will instinctively press that and auto-generate a route leading pilots to the “wrong” gate.
In an ideal world, controllers should double-check gate requests and manually route where necessary. But that might not always be practical in high-workload situations.
Feel free to request taxi to parking if this happens again
I think you’re dealing with a one-off situation here. In IF it’s normal practice that IFATCs honour the gate requested by the pilot. I rarely see an ATC pointing pilots to another gate than requested.
I suggest you check with the controller to see what his thoughts are on this.
Hello, this was me.
The only reason I taxied you and one other pilot to nearest gate was because of how busy the airport. Singapore Changi has only one taxiway leading to from the top till the end of 02C, for me to have you taxied to your gate (which was far from where you exited) without any conflicts would be hard.
As you can see, in red is that path that was gonna be given to you if I had taxied you to your requested gate, however I have 3 aircrafts (in yellow) that we’re headed to 02C that were going to have made a conflict with you, and as you can see, China Eastern 17MU has already gotten into one. So to avert extra wasted time on unneeded conflicts as the airport was very very busy I taxied you to the nearest gate.
Ps: At WSSS, the entire airport is one terminal if I’m not mistaken, so it wouldnt affect the realism.
Now I understand. If only there were two taxiways available conflict would be resolved. Alternatively, I could hold at B1 to give way to aircraft already on EP or hold aircraft at A4 and A3 before taxing via EP (though I’m not sure if there’s an option to hold there). I’m aware this would increase your workload but it’s just an opinion. Another option is for me to go south via EP (a long way to my gate). Otherwise I appreciate your explanation. As I mentioned to reduce workloads;
Hello my friend. Just a little feedback here, You could have given him his gate and a hold position instruction perhaps? I think that’s what would happen in real life in this situation even if it was busy, and it is. I would have hated to be in his position, the last thing I’d want to do is park say an Emirates plane at a Singapore Airlines Terminal after such a long flight.
Singapore airport is made up of one big terminal, for all airlines.
And in real life, this would’ve been completely different. We don’t have this in the sim but irl he would’ve been told to exit at certain taxi way which would’ve made things easier
