Chaos at Shanghai/Pudong
After about 5 cm of snow a couple of days ago Pudong Airport was a complete shambles. Only three de-ice trucks, but most of the time only one or two actually operating. Only type 1 fluid, so no hold-over time. There was intermittent light snow the last couple of days, with temperatures around freezing. It was taking about 30 minutes to de-ice each aircraft, with an average wait of 7 hours (yes, SEVEN HOURS!) if you called ready in the morning. Quite a few aircraft had boarded pax, unaware of the extensive delay, which is a recipe for agro in the cabin, particularly with short tempered Taiwanese travellers. ATC had no clue of what was going on and answered all pleas for information with "Delay not determined, remain this frequency", so no concrete information available to pass on to the pax. Because departures were paralysed all parking bays filled up, so arriving aircraft (including many long-haul) where line up on taxi-ways waiting for somewhere to disembark pax, with some holding for upwards of 3 hours.
Unfortunately this chaos ensues every time there is a disruption at this airport, with no plan apparent for the orderly handling of traffic and the dissemination of accurate information.