Hi Akerosid,
"So, do you want to see snowploughs in action while the runway is still open - and aircraft in the hold above, waiting to land? "
This is exactly what needs to happen, although the runway would actually be closed, but for a very short while. It is what happens everywhere else. I had one go around last week so they could perform a sweep at a central european airport. Vectored around immediately for another approach. Lost 10 minutes. Runway almost exactly the same length as Dublin.
What is lost on the DAA is that there is no need to completely clear the runway, just improve it. Is there something the DAA knows that nobody else does, or is it the other way around? The latter I'm afraid.
Callsign Kilo, it appears we were working the same night.
Faire d'income, is that 45m restriction related to the long haul fleet or does it apply to the narrowbodies also? If so, that's surely a company restriction that could be put under review. It seems excessive.
If widebody only, the runway could initially be cleared to 30m to get traffic moving and then continually improved with small closures to the full 45m.
The problem with these 4 hour closures is that it causes aircraft to divert and there are massive numbers of flight cancellations.
Simply improve the runway to a sufficient standard with small closures, and there are no diversions, airlines schedules survive with delays of course, but without cancellations. No aircraft out of position. No stranded passengers.
And please, please, please mobilise the fleet quicker. I suspect people are pulled off other jobs to drive the deicing trucks.
Jamie2k9,
It appears you were not keeping track of Aer Lingus cancellations too closely yesterday afternoon. The entire operation fell like a deck of cards. Aircraft may have arrived back at 4:30 am but when almost all outbounds after 4pm were cancelled there were interesting scenes at departures I hear. Chanting, angry crowds. Tomorrow's papers should be interesting.
I'm wondering as to your motives in turning this into a EI v FR thing.
Everyone had their problems. This is the Dublin Airport thread and the performance of the DAA did absolutely nothing to help airlines maintain their schedules. Both EI and FR suffered as a result.