Just checked and EK22 sch. departure 08.45 is showing final boarding. Does de-icing only start when all pax and freight on board and then is subject to wait for de-icing equipment?
Off blocks 1031 and dep c1045 according to FR24. At the same time the next A380 was on finals, so just time to fill that shiny new deicing rig up.
And now a lot of snow coming down as another of the showers has escaped over the Pennines.
Passengers now generally expect low fares and airlines screw the agents (and airports) down in terms of what they are prepared to pay. As a result resources are cut to the bone and are on the edge even in "normal" conditions, so when things go wrong, as it does quite often, it all goes tits-up very quickly. In addition there is little motivation for many staff to go that "extra mile" as their working conditions are often at minimum rates and unsociable hours. And it's not only in aviation it happens - it is also a feature of many other industries nowadays as is becoming increasingly obvious.
The airlines have their own agreements with the Handling Agents (which the Airport is told is nothing to do with them) which presumably have some minimum service standards written in. Don't know if the Handling Agents have to pay the airlines if they don't meet them and I suppose you can argue that they can always change agents if there is consistent bad performance ...
But isn't that often a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire? Meanwhile the Airport is powerless to do anything, but always gets the rubbish thrown at them by the travelling public as "I had a c*ap experience at Manchester Airport".
My guess is that other airports are also having problems with de-icing this am. DUB seems to be particularly badly affected although it has been snowing on and off there since the early hours and I guess snow clearance of manoeuvring area is also a major issue.
Meanwhile, many MAN departures are getting away quite reasonably despite the snow and increasing wind-speeds. And in shocking news, MAN has taken a few diversions from DUB today
Spend money at Manchester?! Now you really are living in dreamworld!
Presumably a tongue in cheek comment LAX considering the current capital expenditure. And I wonder what the users (ie airlines) view would be of the capital spend required for any remote de-icing area along with all the required environmental requirements, never mind where on the site you would put it....? I know what their views were 20 years ago when it was discussed then and it should come as no surprise that it was never followed through.