Date: 201508
Local time of day: 0001-0600
Location: ZZZ.ARTCC, US
Light: Night
Aircraft: No Aircraft
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Enroute
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Workload; Situational Awareness; Distraction; Communication Breakdown
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
When detected: In-flight
Result: Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; General Work Refused
Contributing factors: Human Factors; Weather; Procedure; Chart Or Publication; Airspace Structure
Primary problem: Procedure

Narrative: [Adjacent facility] Center had coordinated with us that no point outs were necessary from 40 miles South of [a fix] and North; so we were running guys through there all night. Then the supervisor from [Adjacent facility] calls our supervisor and says that it wasn't legal and we can't do that and that they were going to write it up. [Adjacent facility] now wants point outs on each individual aircraft entering; and further call to let them know when the aircraft has left their airspace. This is a [expletive deleted] coordination nightmare. We don't have the staffing for this. They don't want any handoffs; because they don't want to work them; they just want point outs; and if it's only a few that's cool; but when you have dozens deviating South into their airspace; you [get really busy]. You have to go off line to wait for them to accept the point out; then while off line; everyone on your frequency is [transmitting]; your missing requests etc. When we have weather; we are busy doing two things mostly; calling the weather; and keeping aircraft from deviating and losing separation. So on top of this situation; we are now stuck working aircraft sometimes 40 to 60 miles inside someone else's airspace; and anytime they want to do something we are now making yet another call to [Adjacent facility] for control. [Adjacent facility] has been known to not take point outs; or just not answer the line. They won't take hand offs because they don't want to work them; just point outs which [expletive deleted] all over us because the aircraft is deep inside [Adjacent facility] airspace and stuff gets weird in a hurry. The problem with trying to hand off an aircraft from us to [Adjacent facility] that is deviating is that they don't have a flight plan because it wasn't filed through there. So now we got to read an entire flight plan to these guys; wasting time. We spend more time trying to make sure it passes.The solution is for [Adjacent facility] to work their own airplanes. We should limit point outs to within 5 miles or so South of the common boundary. If they go further South; then [Adjacent facility] gets to work them. We need to have new weather airways built for this. Have airways with a defined start and end point that run east to west. For example route A would say started South east [fix] 15 miles and run west until that new airway enters back into US airspace somewhere. If weather is covering that; then go to route B with would do the same exact thing just starting an additional 15 miles South of route A. You can repeat this going same grid pattern going South. That would allow aircraft to file or us to clear them on routes; Monterrey would get the flight plan and we can start handing them off and let them work aircraft in their airspace; relieving the pressure on us. We could also get the state department to [help] and get airspace back into the Letter Of Agreement. This entire deviating through [foreign country] airspace is a huge deal; and nothing ever happens because we [work really hard] making it all work; so it just keeps getting worse and worse. It needs to stop.




Synopsis: Aircraft was deviating for weather from facility A airspace into another Facility B airspace. Facility B controllers delegated some of their airspace to Facility A to accommodate weather deviations. This caused Facility A to work airplanes 40 to 60 miles in Facility B airspace. Facility B Supervisor overrode their controllers and required Facility A to make individual Point Outs. Facility B declines to take handoffs and work these aircraft. This increases facility A's workload greatly. These facilities are in different countries further complicating a possible solution.