LONDON CITY - 2
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Essex
Posts: 29
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
See below.
London City Airport’s runway is re-opening shortly as the earlier damaged aircraft has now been moved. Initially there will be a reduced flow of aircraft so there will be some knock-on delays and cancellations throughout the rest of the day. Passengers should check the status of their flight with their airline, and check in as normal.
London City Airport regrets the disruption caused to passengers today
London City Airport regrets the disruption caused to passengers today
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London (Babylon-on-Thames)
Age: 42
Posts: 6,168
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
A lot of flights due to depart during the next three hours have already been cancelled and nine were diverted, so "minor" seems to be a bit more major than they make us believe.
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I was looking at it from a passenger's perspective. The fact that people get stuck because of cancellations and diversions remains the same, regardless whether the airport has just been sucked into a black hole or BA has blown a tyre on the runway. But you are correct of course that this means that not the incident, but the consequences are major. Note to self: I shall be reborn as a native speaker.
Anyway, sensible PR would dictate that the airport does not put out cryptic press releases along the lines of "because of a minor incident" as this leads to a lot of unnecessary speculation and suspicion. Why not simply "because an aircraft blew a tyre on landing - with no further damage to the aircraft or injuries to passengers and crew - the runway is currently blocked and the airport closed"?
Anyway, sensible PR would dictate that the airport does not put out cryptic press releases along the lines of "because of a minor incident" as this leads to a lot of unnecessary speculation and suspicion. Why not simply "because an aircraft blew a tyre on landing - with no further damage to the aircraft or injuries to passengers and crew - the runway is currently blocked and the airport closed"?
Last edited by virginblue; 5th Feb 2009 at 15:53.
Thread Starter
Unfortunately an airport putting out an "aircraft blew a tyre on landing" message would find that converted within minutes by the tabloid press into "Passengers seconds from disaster" type headlines. So just saying it is an incident and not going beyond that when the press ring up the PR team prevents such nonsenses.
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What's the difference for a tabloid journo between reading the fact on the website or being told over the phone? Tabloids turn it into a sensationalist story anyway, whether they call the press department or not for details.
I think there are countless examples that good PR means to be as precise as possible as quickly as possible. It certainly is not good PR if you cryptically report a "minor incident" and on the arrivals page immediatly below that line are 20 or so cancelled or diverted flights listed.
Anyway, how long was the airport closed in the end? Must have been a real nightmare today with the trouble up at LTN and LCY then getting closed. Are flights getting diverted to Biggin Hill under certain circumstances as well or is everything going to SEN and STN?
I think there are countless examples that good PR means to be as precise as possible as quickly as possible. It certainly is not good PR if you cryptically report a "minor incident" and on the arrivals page immediatly below that line are 20 or so cancelled or diverted flights listed.
Anyway, how long was the airport closed in the end? Must have been a real nightmare today with the trouble up at LTN and LCY then getting closed. Are flights getting diverted to Biggin Hill under certain circumstances as well or is everything going to SEN and STN?
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Just for the record in this thread - another BACF Avro with a gear collapse, this time coming in from AMS:
Second BA CityFlyer incident in days closes LCY runway again
Second BA CityFlyer incident in days closes LCY runway again
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
According to the rumour mill, the next destination to go will be Lufty's Berlin TXL service with effect summer schedule - add this route to Oslo, Hamburg, Berne, Warsaw, Rome, Vienna, Stuttgart and Belfast who have all disappeared in the past months. Lufthansa will apparently move the flights to LHR and compete with BA head on.
That will leave LCY with just 28 destinations this summer.
As we are at the subject of routes faxing the axe, how are the newish routes to EIN and BLL doing - and how does BRU do now in these days of the improved Eurostar (being down to just two flights a day certainly does not help to fight off the competition)?
That will leave LCY with just 28 destinations this summer.
As we are at the subject of routes faxing the axe, how are the newish routes to EIN and BLL doing - and how does BRU do now in these days of the improved Eurostar (being down to just two flights a day certainly does not help to fight off the competition)?
Thread Starter
Nice sunny weekend and start to the week.
However, I see London City still has an enormous snow pile (I hadn't seen one this size since I was in Canada) over by the fire trainer. Apart from idle comments like having a bet on how many days/weeks it will take until it is all melted, I do wonder why it was all piled up there (presumably using an excavator) rather than just pushed over into the dock - because that's where it's going to end up eventually.
However, I see London City still has an enormous snow pile (I hadn't seen one this size since I was in Canada) over by the fire trainer. Apart from idle comments like having a bet on how many days/weeks it will take until it is all melted, I do wonder why it was all piled up there (presumably using an excavator) rather than just pushed over into the dock - because that's where it's going to end up eventually.
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
A Britain's most trusted paper reports, a LX pilot made a scene at the airport when security checked, dropping his pants to the floor:
Angry pilot drops his pants | The Sun |News
Angry pilot drops his pants | The Sun |News
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: London Whipsnade Wildlife Park
Posts: 5,038
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Every UK airport will witness reductions in flights. Airlines are hemorrhaging cash. It is all about survivability into next year. Airlines will go to where the yield is.
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
There is no doubt that this is generally true. However, there can also be little doubt that LCY is much more exposed to the economic downturn than all other UK airports. With the banking sector and law firms shedding workforces in breath-taking numbers and overall business nose-diving, business-related travel of LCY's main target-group is going down. With no freight and IT-flights, a limited amount of leisure oriented passengers, the crisis must be hitting LCY pretty hard.
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: In a house
Posts: 104
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
An ideal opportunity for Merlyn at Scot Airways to build on her London City
and Channel Island links with 2 x D328 on a scheduled service and benefit from the withdrawal of bmi on LHR routes perhaps ?
JER 0700 - LCY 0830
LCY 0900 - LBA 1010/1040 - LCY 1150
LCY 1220 - LBA 1330/1430 - LCY 1540
LCY 1610 - LBA 1720/1750 - LCY 1900
LCY 1930 - JER 2100
GCI 0730 - LCY 0900
LCY 0930 - MME 1040/1110 - LCY 1220
LCY 1250 - MME 1400/1510 - LCY 1620
LCY 1650 - MME 1800/1830 - LCY 1940
LCY 2010 - GCI 2140
Jersey and Guernsey - daily
Leeds/Bradford & Durham Tees Valley - 3 x daily
with a reduced service at the weekend.
and Channel Island links with 2 x D328 on a scheduled service and benefit from the withdrawal of bmi on LHR routes perhaps ?
JER 0700 - LCY 0830
LCY 0900 - LBA 1010/1040 - LCY 1150
LCY 1220 - LBA 1330/1430 - LCY 1540
LCY 1610 - LBA 1720/1750 - LCY 1900
LCY 1930 - JER 2100
GCI 0730 - LCY 0900
LCY 0930 - MME 1040/1110 - LCY 1220
LCY 1250 - MME 1400/1510 - LCY 1620
LCY 1650 - MME 1800/1830 - LCY 1940
LCY 2010 - GCI 2140
Jersey and Guernsey - daily
Leeds/Bradford & Durham Tees Valley - 3 x daily
with a reduced service at the weekend.
On the face of it City doesn't seem to be suffering much more than other airports.
Their January pax figures were down 12.6% on January 2008 and their ATMs down 12%.
This compares with drops of 11% and 15% at Stansted and 11% and 10% at Gatwick. Further afield Manchester suffered a drop of 10% and 14%.
I would have expected City to have suffered reductions considerable greater than this given the parless state of the UK financial sector, at least as it's reported in the media.
Their January pax figures were down 12.6% on January 2008 and their ATMs down 12%.
This compares with drops of 11% and 15% at Stansted and 11% and 10% at Gatwick. Further afield Manchester suffered a drop of 10% and 14%.
I would have expected City to have suffered reductions considerable greater than this given the parless state of the UK financial sector, at least as it's reported in the media.
Thread Starter
You possibly don't remember the service provided by BMI themselves about 3 years ago from London City to Leeds on a subchartered ATR42. I took it myself a couple of times. Loads rarely got into double figures. It didn't last long, of course.
Join Date: May 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 133
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Expectmorepayless
Your idea could work, except one of the many reasons why the MME route had reduced pax is that for those coming to London for a days work couldnt effectively do it because the first flight didnt get people into London early enough.
Whilst i love the thought behind what youve said (not knocking you for that
) your option doesnt allow that as first flight gets you in to London from both MME and LBA around noon and leaves too early for the last flight back - in terms of doing a days work, and in the current climate people are not likely to be able to stay overnight in a hotel to complete that days work down in London.
Its not so bad going up to MME or LBA but i figure more benefit would come from doing it the other way around to be honest and having earlier flights into London rather than out.
Your idea could work, except one of the many reasons why the MME route had reduced pax is that for those coming to London for a days work couldnt effectively do it because the first flight didnt get people into London early enough.
Whilst i love the thought behind what youve said (not knocking you for that
) your option doesnt allow that as first flight gets you in to London from both MME and LBA around noon and leaves too early for the last flight back - in terms of doing a days work, and in the current climate people are not likely to be able to stay overnight in a hotel to complete that days work down in London. Its not so bad going up to MME or LBA but i figure more benefit would come from doing it the other way around to be honest and having earlier flights into London rather than out.
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: In a house
Posts: 104
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
LBA 0700 - LCY 0810
LCY 0840 - LBA 0950/1020 - LCY 1130
LCY 1200 - JER 1330/1400 - LCY 1530
LCY 1600 - LBA 1710/1740 - LCY 1850
LCY 1920 - LBA 2030
MME 0710 - LCY 0820
LCY 0850 - MME 1000/1030 - LCY 1140
LCY 1210 - GCI 1340/1410 - LCY 1540
LCY 1610 - MME 1720/1750 - LCY 1900
LCY 1930 - MME 2040
Howz about that
Perhaps the loads would be better than 3 years ago if there is no BMI flight to Heathrow ? I suppose it depends how many passengers were in transit at LHR for onward destinations and how many were destination London.
LCY 0840 - LBA 0950/1020 - LCY 1130
LCY 1200 - JER 1330/1400 - LCY 1530
LCY 1600 - LBA 1710/1740 - LCY 1850
LCY 1920 - LBA 2030
MME 0710 - LCY 0820
LCY 0850 - MME 1000/1030 - LCY 1140
LCY 1210 - GCI 1340/1410 - LCY 1540
LCY 1610 - MME 1720/1750 - LCY 1900
LCY 1930 - MME 2040
Howz about that
Perhaps the loads would be better than 3 years ago if there is no BMI flight to Heathrow ? I suppose it depends how many passengers were in transit at LHR for onward destinations and how many were destination London.