Over at LPL the de-icing is nothing to do with the handling agents. It’s all centrally controlled and works really well, obviously it’s a lot smaller scale than MAN and it doesn't help when it takes 4 hours to clear the runway (like this week).
At most major European airports the de-ice process is seamless. You taxi out and near the runway holding point normally 2 de-ice rigs are waiting to de-ice whilst you keep engines running. Maximises hold over times with the aircraft then ready for an immediate departure. Wouldn’t be too much effort by MAN to sort something similar, even Madrid has this process and it’s rarely used. Just such a waste of time/resource when the de-ice rigs have to drive around the airport from aircraft to aircraft, with the rig operator mounting/dismounting the boom box.
Last edited by Dct_Mopas; 1st Mar 2018 at 11:39.