Originally Posted by
NickBarnes
Look I understand you will always have this opinion and that's fine, but once again I say to you in the last year, 2 brand new Costa coffee's have opened both Landside and Airside, of course the new world duty free as seen in airports up and down the land. Whsmith completely refitted landside and a new one opened Airside along with the new pub. All the creature comforts you would expect from a small airport. I must take pictures the next time I fly through as a passenger and post them and let you decide if it still looks dreadful, although I admit it doesn't look great from the outside.
Yes the ILS on 09 would be lovely but on a lot foggy days Runway 27 can be used but even then I believe our RVR needs to be 550m plus so even though that's got an ILS if it's fogged out you ain't getting in anyway.
Yes KLM is the only year round international at the minute oh and of course with Tenerife also and I stress at the minute
even then TUI since 2014 I think has had a based Aircraft in the form of Germania and now Sunwing for the summer season flying to a range of summer spots.
Of course we would all like to see the ADF go but once again I ask you if Norwich is 3/10 on Skytrax what makes Luton and Stansted worse at 2/10 on Skytrax?
Many things wrong with Norwich mostly to do with the ADF but aren't there at so many airports across the UK.
Many thanks for a more constructive and less petulant reply Nick.
The big issue with Norwich is the much hated departure fee and the staff attitude. The latter is in my opinion caused by the security unit having boring periods followed by passengers who expect to glide through a small airport as if they were in a big one.
Security staff tend to treat their job as if they were in Ben Gurion.(Israels premier airport) and the passengers are subjected to highly invasive searches not encountered at Heathrow or Gatwick.
Passenger profiling at Norwich is simple compared to other parts of the world.
The departure fee is hated because nothing has really changed at Norwich in my 30 years of looking at and and using the airport. (I last used Norwich 15 years ago)
Private helicopter and non exec GA aircraft abandoned using the site when the old club area was no longer an easy access. The fact that a handling agent is mandatory means a lot of light aviation now uses airfields such as Old Buckenham.
The management seem oblivious to what customers actually want. The outside of the building still looks like the same shed it was when I first flew in there from Jersey in 1991. You can say that Costa and others have spent money but that does not come from the departure fee.
NDB landings went out decades ago.
All I see at Norwich is KLM running the place like a satellite for maintenance and oil and gas flights.
They own no assets there and could pull out quickly.
It might be an idea for Rigby’s management to publicly engage with the users of Norwich airport.