Pathetic - Newcastle Airport Open - Gatwick Shut Down

[Dedworth]

The sorry sight of three lonely snow-ploughs forlornly chugging up Gatwick Airport’s single runway stood as testament to the weather crisis tonight as bosses said it was closed 'until further notice'.

Executives said that the airport, which shut down late on Tuesday at around 10.30pm, would not re-open until 6am tomorrow ‘at the earliest’ after a foot of snow fell in 24 hours - with more on the way.

Continued snow forecasts and temperatures set to drop to around minus -10 C mean there is little real sign of that becoming a reality.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1335111/Gatwick-Airport-closed-notice-weather-crisis-causes-travel-chaos.html#ixzz172KB2Czs

[Dedworth]

What a surprise just shows what a slating in the press can do :D -

Gatwick learns its lesson and reopens after blizzard with a team of 47 snow ploughs... but misery goes on at Heathrow

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339632/Gatwick-reopens-blizzard-47-snow-ploughs-misery-goes-Heathrow.html#ixzz18UHm8ido

[Tawi2]

I came past Heathrow around 2 O'clock,nowt seemed to be moving and the perimiter road was almost empty.

[Tawi2]

Heathrow is closed tonight,Andrew Teacher spokesman for BAA said due to the "Unprecedented":rolleyes: amount of snow :rolleyes: The worst snow for 20 years(his words,not mine)he assured us however that BAA have spent 3 million quid preparing for this type of snowfall and were ready for it :Erm:

[Dedworth]

Heathrow is closed tonight,Andrew Teacher spokesman for BAA said due to the "Unprecedented":rolleyes: amount of snow :rolleyes: The worst snow for 20 years(his words,not mine)he assured us however that BAA have spent 3 million quid preparing for this type of snowfall and were ready for it :Erm:

Laughable

Edit 8pm - just seen him trotting out that crap on BBC News 24 permed hair t0sser, article on there now live is saying Gatwick open but only 17 flights have left in the last 5 hours. BA have really screwed up people there by cancelling all flights after 3pm.

[KeithD]

Newcastle was open as they had very little snow :Erm: ..... Heathrow has to shift 1000 tons of it. More than 30 per each plane parking bay, and do you know how many they have and how careful it has to be done around a plane? Plus you can't use salt at an airport, the planes would eventually fall apart! One plane had already skidded on the runway, so it was closed for safety reason. You'll find some other countries are pretty much shutdown in the EU, Denmark is at a standstill, a lot of airports in Holland have been closed, you can't clear an airport of snow when it is still falling :doh ..... you don't want to be returning from Manila only to land at heathrow, skid off the runway and die in a fireball :NoNo: .... on top of that it is dangerous to travel to the airport in such weather, and all safety issues have to be taken into account.

[Dedworth]

Newcastle was open as they had very little snow :Erm: ..... Heathrow has to shift 1000 tons of it. More than 30 per each plane parking bay, and do you know how many they have and how careful it has to be done around a plane? Plus you can't use salt at an airport, the planes would eventually fall apart! One plane had already skidded on the runway, so it was closed for safety reason. You'll find some other countries are pretty much shutdown in the EU, Denmark is at a standstill, a lot of airports in Holland have been closed, you can't clear an airport of snow when it is still falling :doh ..... you don't want to be returning from Manila only to land at heathrow, skid off the runway and die in a fireball :NoNo: .... on top of that it is dangerous to travel to the airport in such weather, and all safety issues have to be taken into account.

In January a few years back I travelled in and out of Boston, Denver & St Louis airports and they operated perfectly OK - sitting at the gates you could see the teams of men going from plane to plane spraying with de-icer. I guess they didn't sit waiting for the Health & Safety man as 30 tonnes of snow built up.

I wonder if Health & Safety has reached Russia and they shut Moscow airport for 3 months of the year. Its a shame BAA aren't as quick putting out the snow ploughs and de-icers as they are getting the PR Man in front of the cameras.

Last night the Northern runway was open yet Heathrow airport was closed, a couple of years ago they spent long periods running on a single runway whilst re-surfacing the other bit by bit - that was with a full flight schedule not the few planes able to fly yesterday.

[RickyR]

This time last year Marvie flew into Manchester, and all the airports were shut in the North of England, she was airbourne overhead for several hours, diverted to Birmingham to refuel then came back and eventually landed. The problem was that despite having the equipment and ploughs, as fast as they were clearing the snow by the time they reached one end of the runway it had already snowed over the clear ground. They could have affectively cleared it, allowed one or two arrivals and departures, then continued clearing it. When your at that stage, which is depandant no the very local conditions and density of snow falling, you can only do your best. We don't have heated runways (which exist in a few places), and in the same conditions, airports in Canada and Scandanavia have similar problems and issues despite what the media wants you to think.

[Terpe]

I understand all the frustrations that extreme winter conditions bring.
I have flown and driven all around the very north of Sweden and Finland during winter.
The fact is these place expect such conditions every year, and get them. It's predictable.
The key factor is that they spend the needed money to keep things moving. They have the money, equipment and technology available spefically.

We could do just the same in UK, but would we all be prepared to pay the extra money for that? Would it be a worthwhile cost?

[KeithD]

Dedworth I suggest you read up on the airports in those countries, you'll find they all close for safety reasons during heavy snowfall, they are just not reported in this country.

http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/news/story.aspx?storyID=4420
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n237089
http://www.discountvouchers.co.uk/news/87783535.html
etc.... :doh

[Dedworth]

Dedworth I suggest you read up on the airports in those countries, you'll find they all close for safety reasons during heavy snowfall, they are just not reported in this country.

http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/news/story.aspx?storyID=4420
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n237089
http://www.discountvouchers.co.uk/news/87783535.html
etc.... :doh

Thanks.

I'll have a word with my mate who's a BA Aircraft Engineer at Heathrow as to why they couldn't use the Northern Runway to get some of the long haul flights away.

[KeithD]

A long haul flight just took off :Erm: .... A380 to Aus

[Dedworth]

What a shower BAA are they've just issued a grovelling apology

UK snow chaos: hundreds more flights cancelled as BAA criticism intensifies
Hundreds more flights were cancelled on Monday morning as criticism of BAA's response to the recent bad weather intensified.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/8213613/UK-snow-chaos-hundreds-more-flights-cancelled-as-BAA-criticism-intensifies.html

Colin Matthews, chief executive of BAA, was forced into an embarrassing apology as he sought to sooth passengers' fury.

"I'm really disappointed to have disrupted so many thousands of people's Christmas plans," he said on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"I couldn't be more sorry, that's the case."

He added that it "may well be" that BAA had to buy more equipment to deal with conditions like those seen in recent days.

British Airways said Heathrow had only one of its two runways operational and "many areas of the airfield remain unusable, including areas around parked aircraft".

The airline said it was operating "a limited schedule of flights" to and from Heathrow this morning and had published a schedule until noon.

Snow and ice grounded the vast majority of flights in and out of Britain yesterday, with Heathrow the worst-affected airport.

The airport cancelled all incoming flights on Sunday (December 19) after the authorities were unable to de-ice the taxiing areas and stands where planes are parked.

[bornatbirth]

What a shower

nope, it was a snow storm.

how on earth can you control the weather :Erm:

[Dedworth]

Seems like I was right all along BAA Heathrow now making grovelling apologies, the EU are putting the boot into them and they turned down an offer from the Govt of the army to help out.

Stockholm airport has never closed due to snow in 50 years

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12039443

[KeithD]

The EU is putting the boot into a lot of EU airports, not just the UK, even Austrian airports have been shutdown, and they're used to snow every year. Scandanavian countries have snow for an average of 3 months of the year, the more North you go, the more months, so it is worth them investing in expense equipment as it has to be staffed full time all year.

In order to prevent the problems with the rail we need to make all the tracks diesel, however massive investment has been underway for decades to electrify all rail networks across the EU.

I don't think the roads have been that bad, they've been salted, but salt does squat for snow, and with the temperatures being so low it's not very effective anyway. In the USA places I've been people help others by attaching small snow ploughs to the front of their 4x4's, help towing neighbours, clearing the roads/paths in front of their own houses. We do squat in this country like that and expect it all to be done for us. A few years we'll be expecting someone from the government to wipe our :action-smiley-081:

[grahamw48]

I'm supposed to be taking my boy down to Stansted on Thursday for a flight to Stockholm...spending Xmas with his mother...MAYBE. :NoNo:

She booked the tickets.
Leeds/Bradford 30 miles away might have been better, instead of 200, but ticket was probably 10 quid cheaper. :rolleyes:

[Dedworth]

Heathrow operations ought to be policed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) but it would appear their remit covers critical issues like how many times a day the Gents Urinals are cleaned :-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12049482

Regulation of airports themselves appears to be limited. The Civil Aviation Authority's remit covers safety, but it does not have the power to demand airports stay open or closed, or to fine them for not providing a service.

"Airport operators and airlines are responsible for operational decisions about when it is and is not safe to operate flights," a CAA spokesman said.

The three largest UK airports - Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted - are also subject to economic regulation, but again the CAA admits that its role is "very narrowly defined".

Regulators' provisions for service quality tend to focus on matters such as ensuring queuing times are not too long, that there is enough seating and that toilets are clean.

:angry: You couldn’t make it up !

[grahamw48]

You'd think that in this day and age heated runways would be possible.

Santa always seems to manage. :Erm:

[KeithD]

You'd think that in this day and age heated runways would be possible.



They are, but cost a fortune as you need to rip up an entire runway and relay it again, that would mean shutting down a runway at Heathrow for months, and you've just seen the chaos a few days done.