Originally Posted by
WHBM
Then that's ops incompetence, saying because it's legal that's fine, even though it's not agreed with handling agents or whatever so it's going to be a nightmare. The sort of thing that airline A is OK at arranging in advance, airline B less so.
It’s simply not feasible for airlines to always provide the same degree of resources and manpower at alternates, compared to what is in place at destination airfields. Having scores of dedicated staff effectively sat on standby, waiting for a wide body aircraft to possibly divert is simply not feasible, especially given how irregular diversions actually are. If your alternate airfield is a company destination, then that will help significantly but it still may not be an easy process. If your alternate is off the company route network, then it can be a hit or a miss as to how efficient things run on the ground.
At least in the six hours in this situation, KLM would have had plenty of time to arrange alternative travel plans or book hotels as appropriate, so that there were some arrangements already in place when they landed back at AMS. Undoubtably inconvenient to end up back where you started but far easier for KLM to manage and arguably a more comfortable experience for the pax and horses on board. Diverting to somewhere with not enough hotel rooms can soon turn into a social media disaster if pax are stuck on board or in a terminal for hours with nowhere to go to. Diverting due to volcanic ash would not normally be a ‘splash and dash’ diversion, so a prolonged period on the ground would probably have been factored into any diversion, with all the logistical challenges that go with that and diverting a Jumbo.