An Alternative 12 days of Christmas?
1st. LHRs snow fleet is larger than Gatwicks....
Do you have a public source for this? I accept that the BBC report maybe wrong, but it would be nice to see evidence of this.
2nd. LHR only needed to compliment its current fleet with £500K, rather than LGW completely updating their whole fleet.
Why was this? LGW was, until recently, owned by BAA. Had they failed to invest sufficiently in updating and maintaining snow clearing equipment? Or have the new owners of LGW set a higher standard than that accepted by BAA?
3rd. Gatwick has closed more often and for longer than LHR this year.... they have had more snow overall.
More snow, more closures is logical. Have they stayed close for excessively long periods though?
4th. All airfields affected by this level of snow have closed and remained closed until it was safe to reopen.
And quite rightly so. The contention is that LHR has remained closed for too long, due to lack of snow clearing capability and lack of proper planning. No one would argue that operations should be suspended if conditions are unsafe.
5th. BAA is a commercial organisation... constrained by political regulation capping profits and driving availability unrealistically high... hence almost at full capacity, with capital investment prioritised to improve volume rather than contingency.
Well stop paying dividends and re-invest that money in vital equipment.
6th. The airlines are responsible for their own operation.... contracting; dispatch, towing, loading, baggage handling, check-in, engineering and anti-icing aircraft and looking after their customers - the passengers.
Accepted by most I think.
7th. BAA treats everyone as a customer, so when the airline ignores or fails to provide for its passengers they step in to help with their own contingency plans.
Can you give an example?
8th. Why should the Government provide assitance... did they offer the same to Gatwick when they snow closed? BAA is a commercial organisation, albeit over-regulated.
Ask that question to the passengers at LHR.
9th. What contingencies did the airlines put in place to operate when the airfield is closed? How did they look after their customers?
They cannot operate from or to a closed airfield. Therein lies the problem. How well they looked after their pax will vary from operator to operator I imagine. Another question is what information was given to the airlines by BAA?
10th. What assistance did the airlines provide to BAA to help snow clear around their aircraft or on stands?
Why should they help? The airlines are BAA's customers after all. They pay for the "privilege" of operating from LHR, not to do BAA's job for them. Would you offer to cook your own meal in a restaurant? Would you offer to clean your own room in an hotel? Don't you think the airlines have enough to do already dealing with all the delays and cancellations?
11th. Whats with berating individuals.... a companies failing, is a companies failing... not just the CEOs. Colins not broad enough to do any real damage with a shovel.
I'm not personally doing that but I can understand why people do. If a company fails to deliver there is always a reason for it. CEO's are ultimately responsible for the running of the company, ergo, they are responsible for success or failure are they not?
12th. Who would rather BAA rushed, did a bad job and a accident occured injuring or killing passengers, crew, ground staff or neighbours?
No one obviously.
Merry Christmas.