I’m currently staffing New York City Ground at KJFK (training server). I have a pretty busy shift and I’d like to know if I can assign a gate to an arriving aircraft, that is not what they requested. Many aircraft are either requesting parking at their discretion, or parking to a gate that is not respectively used in real life. Is there any way to use drag & taxi to make them dock at a realistic gate? For example, just a few minutes ago, an Air France landed, and wanted to park at the closest gate. Air France uses Terminal 1, so instead of using like 20 different progressive commands I just let them go.
Technically, it is possible to assign pilots to a gate they have not requested. However, in IFATC, we instruct controllers to allow pilots to choose their parking unless a specific gate is requested.
Correct. Currently, pilots can request any gate, a specific terminal, or a specific gate.
If a pilot requests any gate, we instruct them to taxi at their discretion, using progressive taxi instructions to avoid conflicts with other aircraft. Once the conflict is resolved, allow them to continue at their discretion.
If a pilot requests a terminal, you can provide initial guidance to the general terminal area and then let them continue at their discretion. However, this adds extra workload, so I usually instruct pilots to continue at their discretion from the start.
If a pilot requests a specific gate, I provide full guidance to the terminal using real-life taxi procedures.