OK lots to go at but my view has not changed.
Grateful has been mentioned, however fortunate and thankful I will go with, I met some at AMS that had been stuck there since Sunday. But that has nothing to do with airfield ops at LPL which is where my criticism lies. I understand fully what the weather picture across Europe has been since 18/12/09 as should anyone in a senior management position at any airport in that area. If Schiphol could ant-ice why not LPL? They knew flights were due and the weather did not appear out of the blue, it was forecast and should have been prepared for. It wasn't.
This lack of prep meant that 2 EZY aircraft were on stand for far longer than they should have, possibly preventing them going back to pick up more pax who would have been either stranded or had their journeys disrupted to a greater extent than if suitable measures had been carried out.
I make the point of the head of airport
services, not transport, driving the bus as I doubt that any ground handling staff would have driven it, if the ice was sufficient to hold us off from taxiing it was bad enough to make driving a vehicle such as that a risky business.
Yes, LPL did keep its r/w clear, it benefits from its location in that respect, like PIK, so anti-ice should not have been a prob, just keep required taxiways and apron free. They failed and that rests on the shoulders of head of airfield services I think.
Harbour Cotter-
Its impossible to prepare for every eventuality, unless of course money is no object. Each winter you could provide 500 staff and 50 vehicles, and in the summer staff could be employed to spray cold water on the tarmac and hold up parasols for the pax. That should ensure that most of the eventualities should be overcome. Oh by the way, airport tax will be £1000 per pax please.
Please dont reply to me until you have grown up.
To conclude, EZY did their bit in honouring their contract to fly me from AMS to LPL but JLA failed in their contract with EZY to provide a working stand to offload pax within forseeable wx limitations.
Let us have no apologists for slack airport management, it is a slippery slope, excuse the pun.