BEST L/CONTROLLER - at CWL during the summer DF will include 8-12 flights a day requiring CODECO loadsheets. (6G and WW don't use CODECO loadsheets anyway so the loss of that contract is irrelevant). 2 of CWl's dispatchers where sent on CODECO load control courses in JAN/FEB there is speculation that this was actually in preparation for the move (i.e backup load controllers to support the DM's), so looks like LBA are going down the same road.
At Cardiff there are many remote stands and no ramp car - an aircraft can frequently be 5 mins walk from a computer terminal. (CWL have no ramp cars, lots of security doors and not many (working) computer terminals)
Lets do the maths-
-60 Report to A/C & get figures
-55 Send figures to MAN (& send arrival)
-50 Return to A/C to dispatch
-45 Co-ordinate loading, boarding, fuelling etc.....
-30 Go to collect load sheet
-25 Collect loadsheet and print other paperwork
-20 Present loadsheet to captain
-15 Captain rejects loadsheet - return to terminal
-10 Call MAN and tell them
-5 New LS arrives
STD Present new LS
+5 Captain finishes his Rant - doors closed
+10 Push back
hmmmm - not much room for error.
Time spent actually dispatching aircraft 15 mins
Baggage offload required = Delay
Any irregularity whatsoever = Delay
Question - Since CODECO cannot produce a load plan for containerized aircraft - who's is going to produce the manual one at -60 such that the loadsheet when produced 120 miles away at STD-30 will trim?? I still can't see how this will work. (CWL will have between 2 and 5 containerized flights a day.)
Has anybody thought of what will happen with Cargo flights - Servisair at Cardiff are expected to produce loadsheets for daily TNT flights - I believe Servisair UK's only 'TNT loadcontrol trainer' (a CWL ops-supervisor/loadcontroller, trained in LGG at great expense only a few months ago) has just been made redundant due to the changes.
Plus – Diversions, large LMC’s, dangerous good’s, AVI’s, last minute rush bags, and other things that frequently change at the captains discretion.
One positive - Duty managers will now have to run operations and phone Manchester load control every 30 seconds. This could mean the station managers will have to take up the slack.
Well I'm off to see when they plan to train CWL dispatchers in manual load control and SITA because they have less than a month to do so.
Then just sit back and wait for the excretion to hit the rotary ventilator!