Originally Posted by
CW247
We did a diversion to Luton from Gatwick last week. After almost 3 hours on the ground, flight got cancelled. We couldn't get out due to lack of pushback tug and crew. Swissport guy was distraught they couldn't help us after running around for ages. How come things like this still happen in this country? Does anyone know of a formula airline and handling bosses use to work out how many ground crew/trucks they need on a given day? It was only 4 diversions. What's worse is lack of parking places that face outwards requiring no pushback. That would solve the problem nicely, but no!
If it is the day I think it actually was
Peaceair A320 (TUI), three easyJets, Enterair from Gatwick, two BAs from Heathrow.
Luton uses shared resources for tugs & connection rods. Non of the above types should have been an issue. I suspect it was priority existing sheduled ops.
UK does not tend to use such stands, you would find similar parking arrangements at Stansted or Birmingham if you had gone there. You could have gone to Southend to have such parking available, they need the business but I don't think accept off loading of pax on diversions!
If your intentions were to just pick up more fuel and wait out until you could reposition back to LGW that bare that in mind and let your ops know if they were the ones showing a preference of diversions available.
There is actually a provision for 4 extra stands East of Foxtrot and extra by runup Bay. It wouldn't require too much imagination that those could feed from Foxtrot & Alpha taxiways so no pushback required. Ideal for diversions and splash & dash movements. I'm sure TUI engineering would appreciate someone extra to park whilst waiting of other units to vacate there facilities.
Could be used when waiting for slots rather than the South Stands especially when 25 in use.
Last edited by pabely; 18th Jun 2023 at 17:19.