Date: 201706
Local time of day: 0001-0600
Location: ZAB.ARTCC, NM
Aircraft: Medium Large Transport
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Descent
Airspace: Class A ZAB
ATC / advisory: Center ZAB
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Enroute; Supervisor / CIC
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation - Speed All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
When detected: In-flight
Result: Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Contributing factors: Company Policy; Human Factors; Airspace Structure; Procedure
Primary problem: Company Policy

Narrative: Aircraft X was going to PHX on the HYDRR1 arrival on the BLH transition. ZLA Sector 40/60 was spacing a group of arrivals and decided to pull Aircraft X south and put him on the MOHAK transition. The ZAB/ZLA LOA states that they are not allowed to do this. Only the SAN departures are allowed to be on the MOHAK transition. The reason for this is that it forces ZAB Sector 42 to space and blend these two streams in only 40 miles before we hand them off to PHX TRACON.My controller noticed the offload way out in ZLA's airspace and alerted me to the issue. I called our Supervisory Traffic Management Coordinator (STMC) and alerted him to the issue. He said that he would call the ZLA STMC and that I should call the ZLA Front Line Manager (FLM). I called the ZLA Sector 60 FLM and he stated that their Traffic Management Unit (TMU) had overloaded Sector 40 who was spacing the arrivals and they decided to offload aircraft X. There was no coordination of this to myself; the sector or our TMU. The FLM continued to cut me off and told me to take it up with TMU. I talked to my Operations Manager (OM) who was going to look into the issue.The bigger safety problem here comes on our side in Sector 42 who now needs to descend and blend that aircraft back into the heavy northern stream. My controller was shortcutting and speeding up the other aircraft and was trying to build a hole for Aircraft X. He was so busy trying to create this hole that he overlooked the compression that was developing with a few of the arrivals. At the last second before we ship the aircraft to PHX TRACON he ended up stopping the arrivals and vectoring them out to keep separation. This created some last minute vectors and a huge workload.This Sector 42 was already red. Our sector number is 13 and he was red with a number of 18. I had already seen the volume coming and had asked our TMU to ask PHX TRACON for 15 Miles In Trail (MIT) on the westbound departures which would slow the problem down and drag it out so that the controllers could safely handle the arrivals.If ZLA had complied with the LOA they would have had close to 200 miles to safely space out this aircraft. Instead they deviated from the LOA without any coordination and then forced us to create the same spacing in only 40 miles. It created a huge workload for a sector that was already red. If they had created the spacing my controllers could have easily handled the heavy arrival steam without any problems. This would have freed up the controller to concentrate on the departures. I am very thankful that I had been alert and asked for the MIT on the departure stream.ZLA needs to comply with the LOA. It is there to increase the safety of the National Airspace System (NAS).




Synopsis: A Center Supervisor reported the adjacent Center intentionally violated the Letter of Agreement regarding flow control.