Snowmageddon declared as 5 snowflakes close Terminal 5

[tarbera]

just 50,000 passengers effected this time

[SueEllen]

UK airports don't have spare runways they can use in times like this. This is unlike Finland etc who have snow all the time.

This means even if UK airports have their snow ploughs, deicing equipment etc ready, flights will still be cancelled as they can't prep another runway to use when they know the forecast and swap when that's full of snow.

[BrilloPad]

This is drastic! MF has already been caught pretending to fly from there first class today.

There is only one leader who can help. Suity, you time has come.

[SueEllen]

I was also about to add the time between flights taking off and landing at Gatwick and Heathrow is very tight.

Air traffic control have ensured it is the minimum they can get away with, and it sometimes relies on observant pilots to stop near misses.

[Scruff]

Heathrow and Gatwick don't have heated runways, like they do in the rest of Northern Europe...

[eek]

london you say, both my flights worked only issue was I didn’t have time to hit the lounge but that was more due to the gate the second plane left from anything else

[Pondlife]

KLM cancelled both my flights today.

[WTFH]

There's no resilience in the system - all runways are run to full capacity, landing times are as tight as they can be, etc. Any additional runways that might be built in the south east will not solve the problem, as they will also just be used to capacity.
This is due to the airports being run by businesses who need to report maximum profits and who know that when things grind to a halt it's the airlines that have to compensate passengers, not the airports.

http://newairportinsider.com/wp-cont...rports2016.pdf

[Lance]

There's no resilience in the system - all runways are run to full capacity, landing times are as tight as they can be, etc. Any additional runways that might be built in the south east will not solve the problem, as they will also just be used to capacity.
This is due to the airports being run by businesses who need to report maximum profits and who know that when things grind to a halt it's the airlines that have to compensate passengers, not the airports.

http://newairportinsider.com/wp-cont...rports2016.pdf

One presumes that airports have to compensate airlines to some degree if they can't fly. There must be some service levels.
Given that EU rules allow up to 600EUR per passenger for cancelled flights and decent lumps of money for delays I will therefore infer that the airlines would rather pay the passengers than pay the airport more for better service. Or do the airlines insure against that loss?

[DimPrawn]

There will be very few delayed flights into the UK after Korbyn gets in.