Originally Posted by
maastrichtmouse
Dumb question coming: if a plane arrives at a bus 'gate' (outfield somewhere) and there is a taxiway both in front and behind can the plane use its own engines to exit the space onto the taxi way infront of it? Or must it still use a tug? Surely if we wanted speedy entry and exit from airports this would be commonplance, no waiting for tugs. Similar to wishing to exit a parking space in a car by only needing to drive forward.
Athens, which is just about the newest airport in Europe, (OK, other airports now have newer terminals, but the entire airport at Athens was built from scratch in one go, and opened in 2002) has a whole set of remote parking stands designed in exactly the way you describe. They're mostly used for domestic flights. Indeed all domestic flights use them unless the aircraft is coming from or going to an international flight.
There are quite a few international flights that are found there as well.