Originally Posted by
Skipness One Foxtrot
Why do we think it's the airport? Ryanair have a somewhat larger operation similarly dominating single runway Stansted which whilst far from perfect, doesn't have the delays of Gatters. LGW's pain points are similar to STN and MAN, literally a stupid amount of based aeroplane trying to get out in the first wave to fly a 4-6 sector day then huge periods of relatively empty aprons. easyJet have planned no contingency, an old fashioned term once baked into the higher ticket price. The odd hot spare pressed into service to recover the operation doesn't happen so much anymore. What does Ryanair do differently / better here?
They both effectively have a dedicated handling operation albeit third party in Blue Handling and DHL (it's still DHL right?).
Yes it's still DHL at LGW, I had the "pleasure" of working for them until earlier this year. The plan this year is for 82 based easyJet aircraft and I think they're pretty close to that number now. It was 74 when I left. On most days there are 3 hot spares and these get pressed into service nearly every day thanks to tech issues on other frames. With so many aircraft landing so much later than scheduled, the easyJet engineers on site have limited time for their nightly checks and inevitably stuff gets deferred. Trying to get 80+ out aircraft between 0500 and 0830 (1st wave) is a big ask and it wasn't unusual to see 15-20 aircraft queueing for up to an hour between 0730 & 0830.
The problems are not limited to easyJet/DHL - all the ground handlers (apart from Dnata) are suffering the same problems; too few fully tained, experienced staff (many lost during the Covid lockdowns) unreliable GSE, disillusioned staff and the massive turnover of staff. It's a merry-go-round, The ground handlers leave one company, put on a different hi-viz and then go and do exactly the same job they were doing. As soon as one company is offering even as little as 50p/hr more, lots jump ship. There's no stability.