Would not say over £2m in upgrading in recent years is that much. In 2011 alone LGW invested over four time as much in snow removal equipment.
Depends what you have already got....and of course the size of areas you have to clear... But true to form KGL you enjoy having a pop at MAN, so not surprised you should bring this up..
True but sadly a workable solution is only as good as the lowest commmon denominator in the whole supply chain is it not, in this case its the old ......
"you pay buttons so what do you expect"
....and as ever the airport is very firmly in the crosshairs !
As far as I'm aware the Airport Company initiated the relevant bit of their Winter Ops plan some hours before the snow arrived and the runways, taxiways and aprons remained serviceable - there wasn't much snow anyway. There were also a few diversions from LPL and LBA.
However it all went pear shaped due to the lack of de-icing resources from the handling agents as the airport have been keen to point out in the MEN article. But as Bagso says, the airport is firmly in the cross-hairs as most passengers don't know who is responsible for what and frankly don't care either - nor should they. They just want an efficient operation.
The opening up of completely open competition in handling has led to cut-throat prices and produced "a race to the bottom". Things usually work OK until the normal schedule suffers disruption when the options for service recovery are very limited. And as a result the passengers and the reputation of the airport suffers. But if people demand low fares, the HA have to keep their prices low and so the vicious spiral continues.