Originally Posted by
Manchester Exile
The early arrival of EY015 should not have taken anyone by surprise as we were told at Abu Dhabi, whilst still parked on the gate, that we would be arriving around 25 minutes early. I don't know who decides on stand allocation, but the delay could not have been because nobody expected the flight to arrive early.
No offence intended by my posts.
None taken. However you don't seem to think through some of the things you say. You were on the gate in Abu Dhabi, so say 8 hours before the scheduled arrival at MAN, so around 2300 the previous night MAN time. I've no idea which aircraft was on 'your' stand, but looking at the enthusiast logs at aircraft that departed around 0715-0730 I suspect it was either a Monarch A300 or a TCX 767. If it was the TCX then maybe something could have been done as that didn't arrive until around 0450, so a stand change would have been less of a big deal if announced 6 hours previously. However if it was the MON then that had already arrived and was presumably therefore on the stand just after 2200. Monarch and the airport certainly aren't going to pay for their aircraft to be moved for Etihad's convenience, and in these cost-conscious times I doubt Etihad would foot the bill.