So, Manchester yesterday refused 3 diverts (BA B744, SQ B77W and CX B77W), due to lack of staff. (yes this argument again)
Cathay Pacific in particular was interesting, ops at CX apparently spending 30 minutes on the phone to MAN asking to take the CX257 HKG-LHR flight, but point blank refused.
Now, the reason for the refusals is written above, so, my question is, why does this problem seem unique to MAN in particular, yet other airports seem not to make such an issue of this?
Lets look at it this way:
Liverpool. An airport totally reliant on low cost carriers, therefore, one would assume it means the handling staff would be based on the prices the low cost carriers are willing to pay and therefore not much slack to accept extra flights at short notice. Do they have a reputation for refusing flights? No. Do they have horror stories of passengers left stranded on aircraft for hours at a time? No. Therefore presumably, they cope well with the diverts.
Birmingham. A similar traffic structure to MAN albeit on a smaller scale. One would then assume the staffing levels would be at a similar ratio to that of MAN. Do they refuse many diverts? No. Horror stories of passengers left stranded on aircraft for hours? No. Therefore, are we to presume they cope well with diverts? Yes.
Gatwick. Busiest single runway airport in the world. They still managed to accept 3 widebody diverts. 2 of its biggest customers are low cost airlines (easyjet and Norwegian). Do they cope? Yes.
So, why oh why is MAN quite a unique scenario whereby staffing levels are at such a minimum, that the thought of accommodating 3 extra flights for a fuel divert, seems to send the place into a tailspin?
At the end of the day, new routes are not only born on the obvious market demographics, but also on airline relationships. Cathay Pacific for example have stated they wish to serve MAN with pax aircraft in 2016. Do you think the fact that handling a B777 of theirs seemed to fill MAN with dread to the point of refusal will sit well in their eyes? No. Will they question if MAN can cope with a 3-4 weekly service? Probably, after this fiasco.
Come on MAN/Suppliers, sort it out! I know it doesn't pay to have hoardes of staff sat around 'just in case', but, running the place on a shoestring to the point 3 extra flights would cause chaos is just pathetic and looks very poor to outside observers!