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B737 captain reported reoccurring delays at dca because of the highly congested ground control frequency.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1530940 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201803 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | DCA.Airport |
| State Reference | DC |
| Environment | |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Taxi |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Not Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Experience | Flight Crew Type 411 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types |
Narrative:
When ready for pushback; we were unable to get in a word with dca ground control for 20 minutes because of the high number of aircraft on the frequency requiring clearances. Understandably; ground control gave priority to inbound/outbound aircraft currently on taxiways. But because numerous aircraft were also attempting to receive pushback clearances; everyone blocked each other on the frequency and few received a clearance before another 10-20 instructions were given by the controller to taxiing aircraft. This is not the first time I have experienced extreme frequency congestion on ground control at dca. Once last year during weather; we attempted for an hour to receive a pushback clearance. This is frustrating to say the least. There are 34 gates at dca plus numerous hard stands; all requiring clearance from ground control before movement. This is an unacceptably high number of gates for one controller to be responsible for while controlling all surface traffic. Please consider adding a metering position to coordinate pushbacks. Another option is to create non-movement areas with ramp controllers. Thank you.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: B737 Captain reported reoccurring delays at DCA because of the highly congested ground control frequency.
Narrative: When ready for pushback; we were unable to get in a word with DCA ground control for 20 minutes because of the high number of aircraft on the frequency requiring clearances. Understandably; ground control gave priority to inbound/outbound aircraft currently on taxiways. But because numerous aircraft were also attempting to receive pushback clearances; everyone blocked each other on the frequency and few received a clearance before another 10-20 instructions were given by the controller to taxiing aircraft. This is not the first time I have experienced extreme frequency congestion on ground control at DCA. Once last year during weather; we attempted for an hour to receive a pushback clearance. This is frustrating to say the least. There are 34 gates at DCA plus numerous hard stands; all requiring clearance from Ground Control before movement. This is an unacceptably high number of gates for one Controller to be responsible for while controlling all surface traffic. Please consider adding a metering position to coordinate pushbacks. Another option is to create non-movement areas with Ramp Controllers. Thank you.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.