Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Confusion; Distraction; Situational Awareness; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Procedure
This is an ongoing problem in IAH arrival airspace. On all occasions when departing for IAH; a clearance that assigns a STAR or arrival to IAH that does not service the current or forecast airport runway configuration. This happens at the time the clearance is received at the departure airport regardless of the stage length is for the departure. The involved parties are as follows; IAH Air Traffic Management office for a start; then down line to all parties right down to the cockpit for each departure experiencing the clearance assignment.This is happening at other airports as well; this one is simply an example and one that is constant.This problem occurs due to a lack of understanding at the level of the Traffic Management Unit in IAH of the workload that is created for all controller and pilots attempting to comply with the directives from the TMU. They fail to recognize; by placing dispatchers; pilots and controllers on the ground and in the en-route/departure environment in a position of working to comply with clearances and briefings; that they are creating an increase in VHF traffic; phone line traffic and confusion in the cockpit with regard to arrivals. They are increasing the exposure to error due to a requirement to manage actual; practical procedures for arrival rather than the fantasy clearances they are creating. Further; they expose both the flight and the ATC to ambiguity with regard to the path predictability built into the NORDO rules and procedures. There is a simple way to prevent such exposure; eliminate the workload being created in the departure; en-route and arrival phases of flight and remove the ambiguity created by this process regarding the NORDO issue. Stop the practice of demanding the Air Traffic system issue invalid clearances from the start. Have the clearances issued at the time of departure reflect the actual runway configuration at the time departure or the forecast runway at the time of arrival.While we all understand that conditions change dynamically; when those changes occur they are handled by the system and new clearances for arrival changes are issued in real time however; even with those conditions; the automation system can be programmed properly for an anticipated landing runway. In this case; the actual and forecast runway and airport configuration is and was un-programmable. This is the issue. It is acceptable to modify en-route but in my view it is unacceptable to program invalid information from the start of the flight. Opens the door and potentially adds an additional hole the cheese; so to speak.
Air carrier Captain reported that many departure clearances do not take into account the forecast weather and runway usage when being issued.