Heathrow

[TWR]

Must be the laughing stock of the world, where did the £25000000 go? they did say on SNOW clearing Machines! It that the staff with shovels.

This is the right place.

[237SJ]

*Montreal*

[EcclesCake]

This is an open forum for all to contribute to TWR, if you read back through the thread you will see that there are some pretty comprehensive answers regarding the problem and why there is no simple solution.

You, however, seem to think it easily overcome and I for one would be interested to hear your solution.

[TWR]

Was Manchester effected? was Gatwick effected? Was Stansted Effected, when there is bad fog where do they divert air traffic to? do Major International Airports throughout the world come to a halt? Another Issue, Snow the UK comes to a halt, do you say this is a discussion site? that's what I'm doing & your answering.

[Baldric]

Mad as a box of frogs!

[237SJ]

You`ve already had your answer TWR. Heathrow needs more capacity so that there is more leeway. Yes other airports do get affected if a load of snow is dumped. It happens on the East Coast of the USA in the winter and there are the horror stories of planes landing at JFK and then sitting on the tarmac for hours too. The flow rate for take offs and landings has to be reduced for safety reasons (usually 44 per hour but at some points was only 6 per hour on Friday) and radar can`t see aircraft on the ground in fog so movements are restricted. Another problem is de-icing. It takes 20 minutes to de-ice a 747 so you get de-iced, then you wait so long for a take off slot that you have iced up again so you wait to get de-iced again, then the crew go out of hours etc etc etc.

[TWR]

The point I am making 237, Air Trafic could have diverted the flights.

[237SJ]

They did! 747s in Newcastle, Dublin etc.

[EcclesCake]

That would only address the inbound flights in the first instance and would impact severely the consequent outbound flight. It would also involve a fleet of coaches/taxis or other modes of transport to get travellers back to their cars or appropriate airport for their onward flight (when operating).

[Buenchico]

>>>Was Manchester effected? was Gatwick effected? Was Stansted Effected

I refer you to my first sentence above:
"Heathrow runs at 98% capacity for landings and take offs, whereas other airports generally operate at below 50%".

To operate to its planned schedules, Heathrow requires to have aircraft movements at a rate of one every 46 seconds at peak times. If the air traffic controllers at NATS (who are entirely independent of Heathrow's staff) are forced (because of greater aircraft separations) to only permit one movement every couple of minutes, it's physically impossible for Heathrow to fit in all of the planned movements.

Airports such as Manchester have several minutes between movements anyway, so they don't suffer from the same congestion problems.

[TWR]

I take your Input Buen, but it was still a disgrace.

[bednobs]

my answer is heated runways :)

[friedgreentomato]

Yes Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester was affected as was Belfast, Belfast Int and a few more.

[Baldric]

TWR, for info,

There would appear to be lots of problems out there, not just Heathrow,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/air

Discuss!

[AB Editor]

During the last weekend of the Olympics Heathrow had been scheduled at something like 120% capacity. As someone returning from a near-flung land (Berlin) at the time our flight was cancelled and we were shuffled on via Frankfurt - everything was dealt with efficiently and the stress was limited. I assume this is the same, except everyone's grumpy because it's cold (rather than hung-over!)

Heathrow needs another runway.

[DTCwordfan]

Third runway - and I don't know why they don't consider developing Oxford airport as a western approach to the USA and South America. The current runway is 1.3km and they have about another 600 metres they could add on - beyond that move the Banbury road and the junction to Woodstock up and out of the way and they could get over 2 miles......or open up Chalgrove or RAF Benson......though they maybe too close to Heathrow.

[EcclesCake]

RAF Benson? The fine NIMBYs of Henley would love that!

[237SJ]

Mind you, it doesn`t help when all the staff knock off on time and p!ss off home leaving people stranded.
I had a conversation with an aircraft refueller on Thursday :-
Me - "So are you ready for all the snow tomorrow"?
Him - "Yeah, I`ve cancelled the overtime shift I`d applied for tomorrow"
That kind of attitude doesn`t help

[DTCwordfan]

Benson to Henley - a mere 13 miles....you would have more justification in that argument from the good burgers of Wallingford.

[TWR]

No, not @rse licking, but what a bloody good answer.

During the last weekend of the Olympics Heathrow had been scheduled at something like 120% capacity. As someone returning from a near-flung land (Berlin) at the time our flight was cancelled and we were shuffled on via Frankfurt - everything was dealt with efficiently and the stress was limited. I assume this is the same, except everyone's grumpy because it's cold (rather than hung-over!)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Heathrow needs another runway.

[Baldric]

^^^ I don't actually see what that has got to do with your OP TWR, according to your theory that's just another one to close, have you changed horses mid-stream again?