Commercial Fixed Wing
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 11.5
Situational Awareness; Workload; Time Pressure; Human-Machine Interface
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Airspace Structure; Company Policy; Procedure
I was working a high sector feeding ATL inbounds into ZTL. We had a nice stream of about 7 aircraft that were all lined up with 10 to 30 miles in between. The metering numbers on the aircraft indicated significant delay times up to around 5 minutes. Before doing anything; I asked the supervisor to coordinate with the Traffic Management Unit (TMU) to make sure that these numbers were accurate and true. We were advised by TMU that the numbers were in fact correct and that we were to meet them. To meet the metering times both myself and the ultra high sector began initiating large vectors off course to meet the times. After about 4 minutes we were suddenly told that TMU was reshuffling. Within about 30 seconds the numbers went from 4s and 5s to around 2. We immediately had to start cranking the aircraft back on course and resequencing them. Bottom line is we ended up vectoring 6 to 8 aircraft off course for no viable reason. What should have been a nice unobstructed flow through our airspace turned into a jagged mess. When you are vectoring aircraft off course significantly it increases the chances for problems; it burns more fuel; and it increases coordination and workload.If we are going to use the metering system; we need better coordination. Whether it's our TMU or Atlanta's TMU; they should be required to coordinate with the affected sectors before 'reshuffling' the list. It seems that at times TMU thinks they are playing a game up there when in reality real aircraft are affected by their actions.
ATC Center controller reported vectoring several aircraft for sequencing to an airport unnecessarily due to faulty instructions from the Traffic Management Unit.