Narrative:

Upon switching to bos tower on the ILS to runway 04R; we were given the winds; but not given a landing clearance; and told by the controller there would be one departure prior to our landing. We could see a [foreign] B747 on taxiway B perpendicular to runway 04R and first in line for takeoff. The B747 was cleared for takeoff and delayed moving for several seconds; when we were at 1;000 ft AGL; the B747 was still on taxiway B. At this rate; the first officer and I agreed we would not be able to land on 04R. Tower then told us to s-turn on final; cleared us to land and stated 'this will work.' I replied; 'no; this will not work. We need clearance to land on 04L or we were going around.' after several seconds the tower controller cleared us for the visual to 04L and switch to that runway's tower frequency. At 600 ft AGL we were stabilized on final for 04L and landed uneventfully. (When we landed the departing aircraft was just beginning its takeoff roll.) with the good weather and already being in landing configuration; I did not feel there was any degradation to safety by us sidestepping to 04R. [We needed] better monitoring of sequencing and spacing by tower supervisor.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Airbus Captain reported ATC tried to depart a B747 when the arrival was too close in; resulting in a sidestep maneuver.

Narrative: Upon switching to BOS Tower on the ILS to Runway 04R; we were given the winds; but not given a landing clearance; and told by the Controller there would be one departure prior to our landing. We could see a [foreign] B747 on Taxiway B perpendicular to Runway 04R and first in line for takeoff. The B747 was cleared for takeoff and delayed moving for several seconds; when we were at 1;000 FT AGL; the B747 was still on Taxiway B. At this rate; the First Officer and I agreed we would not be able to land on 04R. Tower then told us to S-turn on final; cleared us to land and stated 'This will work.' I replied; 'No; this will not work. We need clearance to land on 04L or we were going around.' After several seconds the Tower Controller cleared us for the visual to 04L and switch to that runway's Tower frequency. At 600 FT AGL we were stabilized on final for 04L and landed uneventfully. (When we landed the departing aircraft was just beginning its takeoff roll.) With the good weather and already being in landing configuration; I did not feel there was any degradation to safety by us sidestepping to 04R. [We needed] better monitoring of sequencing and spacing by Tower Supervisor.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.