B747-400
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Procedure
A B747-400 came in from the Northwest and I was told by TMU to assign Runway 27L; but to keep him on the north downwind instead of the actual 27L transition that we use when in dual operations. I told the B747-400 to expect vectors to Runway 27L and went on working the other traffic. Close behind the B747-400; there was another jet that I slowed to keep heavy separation. I noticed that the jet was compressing on the B747-400 to I turned the other jet 15 degrees to the right to keep separation. A few minutes later; I noticed the B747-400 turning on the 27L transition; right into the path of the other jet. I immediately turned B747-400 back the the left and descended him to 11;000 [feet] to try and keep separation. I'm really not sure what can be fixed here besides completely taking aircraft off the RNAV arrivals. I have had to do this a couple of times and I was able to explain to those pilots before what I needed them to do so they didn't plug the runway into their FMS's and fly the transition. Due to traffic complexity; I see this happening on occasion and I have concluded for myself; in order to stay safe and keep explanations to a minimum; I will just take them off the arrivals completely and put them direct ATL or just on a vector.
A80 Controller described a conflict event when traffic assigned a RNAV arrival strayed off the assigned route; the Controller indicating this was not an isolated occurrence.