Changer... My wife and I flew from O'Hare to St Louis once. Taxying out we were told there was a "one hour ground stop due to thunderstorms"!!!!!!! We duly sat there for an hour... OK, you people might be good with snow but we beat the pants off you with thunderstorms
Errmmm you don't stop for thunderstorms at Heathrow?? Must be fairly wussy storms then...I didn't think you were allowed to fuel an aircraft on the ramp if there was lightning around? Ground stops occur here for that very reason...plus a lot of the airlines don't seem to want to fly through them.
As for the snow in the UK. Whilst I sympathise (having worked there)...there will come a point where the " it hardly ever happens so why invest the money" line will seem strange if it happens every year. So far it is 3 and counting.
And yes I accept that Heathrow is a complex operation with a lot of carriers..and the argument I put to my YYZ colleagues is where exactly they can put the snow (not a lot of room around the airport). However in area size to a lot of US airports it is not THAT big...so deicing should not be as complicated as made out to be.
It all comes down to planning...and it does seem the BAA seems to be rather lacking in that department. I try not to be too rude knowing the complexity of the operation...but when you work at a North American airport that has a laid out plan and acts to it.....it does beg the question of what the European hubs base their snow clearing model on?....cos it ain't working.