Originally Posted by
vectisman
The airport is not at capacity by a long way since the pandemic. TUI have operated from North for many years. As I said the ACMI based aircraft for TUI have been based in South before so no real issue. You are seeing an issue where there is really nothing to see. With 79 based aircraft it is no wonder EasyJet have to split their operation in the same way as BA has to at Heathrow between terminals 3 and 5.
If the current schedule sticks then the airport will be at capacity this summer, in terms of aircraft movements and first wave stand occupation.
The difference before was that the TUI Norwegian flights were Norwegian flights with Norwegian flight numbers operating out the same terminal as every other Norwegian flight. Now they’re TUI flights, with TUI flight numbers split between two different terminals. TUI re-number these flights with BY5/BAL flight numbers, which causes all sorts of operational issues with flight planning and ATC. And as there are very few, if any, destinations that’ll be solely operated by ACMI, there is the inconvenience and confusion to passengers departing from one terminal and returning to another.
TUI and EZY have almost identical wave patterns out of LGW, so instead of having 12 EZY/TOM aircraft based at South, you’d have 13 TOM aircraft instead.
If it’s “finding a problem where there isn’t one”, why were BA and VS forced to go through the rigmarole of swapping terminals, including moving their own business class lounges, to allow EZY to operate under one roof before?