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Old 20th Dec 2010, 09:27
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With regards to the Air Asia X flight that diverted in from STN, it seems that Air Asia X CEO Tony Fernandes wasnt at all impressed with the service they recieved at BHX and will consider an alternative diversion airport in future.

Regards

Stu
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Old 20th Dec 2010, 10:45
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Air Asia

UPS@EMA

Depends on what was explained to Air Asia before the diversion.

If it was "yes everything is fine, we can handle you no problem",
then I too would be upset.

However if Air Asia had done their homework and realised that it
would be arriving after an eight hour snow dump and temperatures
nearing -10, then they don't have too much to complain about.

Saturday evening was challenging to say the least and that is why
a lot of long-haul no doubt chose mainland Europe rather than the UK.



Pete
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Old 20th Dec 2010, 12:43
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Code:
"I just happened to be in my local Chinese Take-Away as BBC were talking to one of the BHX-TFS passengers via a mobile phone.

Now how true this is or not but apparently a cabin crew member had informed the passengers that they could have departed however the crew would have been out of hours to make the return trip TFS-BHX.

IF this is true then sounds like an O'Leary company policy that FR will not provide crew accommodation under any circumstances, failing that there is no policy in place that crew carry night stop gear with them and, perhaps, the crew had no pyjamas etc. with them!

If this is true I can imagine why the passengers are p1ssed off!
I too watched that lovely piece of reporting from BBC News, a real gem

The lady was complaining how there were 300 people stuck on the plane and that the police had been called to forcibly remove them. (max passenger configuration is 189)

It is quite true that the crew could have been in hours and do the single flight down to TFS. It was probably left down to the crew's discretion, and I'd have probably made the same decision not to go.

There is NO company policy that RYR will not provide accommodation due to unforeseen night stops, infact quite the opposite. Whenever I've talked to colleagues who have stopped over, the hotels have been good and include dinner and breakfast.

Why should we carry 'night stop gear?' We plan to come back to base every night. With around 260 aircraft, the number of night stops experienced by the company is less than you can count on one hand in any given month

You've also got to think of the bigger picture, having an aircraft stuck down in TFS makes it unavailable for the next days flights, further disrupting the schedule.
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Old 20th Dec 2010, 13:25
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OK, having crew stuck in TFS might be a problem. But, with dozens of aircraft not used this winter, I dont think it would make a difference to have of them down there ?
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Old 20th Dec 2010, 15:40
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It is quite true that the crew could have been in hours and do the single flight down to TFS. It was probably left down to the crew's discretion, and I'd have probably made the same decision not to go
I seem to remember when flying as cabin crew back in the 90's that you were not allowed to operate if you knew for sure you were going to go out of hours en route and therefore incur an unscheduled nightstop mostly to minimize ongoing disruption to the overall schedule, never mind the avoiding the cost of overnighting an aircraft and its crew. It would appear that this was the case with this flight to TFS.

There is NO company policy that RYR will not provide accommodation due to unforeseen night stops, infact quite the opposite. Whenever I've talked to colleagues who have stopped over, the hotels have been good and include dinner and breakfast.
Its a shame that FR do not apply the same kind of thought when it comes to their passengers being stranded as a result of weather, tech aircraft and so on!
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 15:18
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Am hearing reports that an ek b777 diversion has steered off taxiway and is sinking into grass ??

Sounds like bhx having a bit of a mare this past couple of days.......whoops
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 16:06
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Emirates on the piste in Brum

A plane diverted from London Heathrow due to the freezing weather conditions has partly come off the taxi-way at Birmingham Airport.

The Emirates aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER, was carrying 282 passengers and landed routinely at 1354 GMT, Birmingham Airport said.

While proceeding to the terminal, it "inadvertently" taxied on to the grass, leaving a set of wheels stuck.
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 16:17
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They did a similar thing on 23 at Glasgow a while back. Caused chaos for ages
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 16:31
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was carrying 282 passengers
I know this isn't the point of the thread, but for this time of year along with all the travel disruptions as well - is that a good load or not?
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 16:38
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Seatguru.com shows two 777-300ER configurations.

2 class is 427 seats
3 class is 358 seats

Good load? Probably different opinions.
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 16:51
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Usually they operate a 2 class 77W to BHX. For this time of year, this seems like a pretty mediocre LF (although it is 66%).

However, some reports suggest this acft was actually diverting.

Seems like a fairly minor incident, but EK (and other ME carriers) tend to be a little heavy handed when it comes to discipline, so hopefully the crew won't be too harshly treated when they return to DXB.
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 17:32
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This was EK29 - a LHR divert.

To be honest BHX has to take some responsibility for this one.

Originally slated for stand 54C, BHX changed it to 41C because their own EK service hadn't left yet (predicted by anyone capable of comparing ETA and ETD times). Then, after realising that 41C was still occupied by a TOM 757 they swapped it to 55C - but didn't notify EK29 until after they had passed the turn for 55C. EK29 went off-road while attempting a u-turn to get back to 55C.
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 17:34
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Thread already running here...

http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airpo...iste-brum.html
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 17:36
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BBC Midlands who were recording the diversion now saying the pilot 'cut the corner'

And BHX want a 380 to operate? so back to the argument of the infrastructure at the airport as reported in the Birmingham thread.

Last edited by crewmeal; 21st Dec 2010 at 17:47.
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 18:11
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I fail to see what relevance the unfortunate mis-routing of a B777 onto the grass has to do with BHXs' capability or otherwise of handling A380s.

It may have a little more relevance as to the capability of the commander of the aircraft to keep it on piste in the first place, or other external factors perhaps in combination.
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 18:28
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I fail to see what relevance the unfortunate mis-routing of a B777 onto the grass has to do with BHXs' capability or otherwise of handling A380s.
It hasn't but look further down the line when EK decide to do their forward planning and decide future plans. As discussed in the BHX thread many people have stated that the infrastructure is not in place, ie wider taxiways, runway etc.

Having once worked in flt ops planning many moons ago infrastructure concerns are always raised when planning routes. In other words can the airport cope.
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 18:38
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It speaks volumes for BHX's inability to cope when things get busy.

I've seen plenty of releases from BHX's press office stating that they're operating at 50% capacity and they could help clear the overcrowding at LHR. The runway may cope with 50% more movements but the terminal and staff couldn't cope with 50% more PAX.
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 20:28
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I doubt the stand changes made any difference, they had only just got off the runway at E. From there all of the stands mentioned are in the same direction.
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 20:40
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Usually they operate a 2 class 77W to BHX. For this time of year, this seems like a pretty mediocre LF (although it is 66%).
This was EK29 - a LHR divert.
So should be 3 class.

Even so you would have expected it to be chokka after all the LHR disruption.

Suzeman
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Old 21st Dec 2010, 20:59
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It speaks volumes for BHX's inability to cope when things get busy.
It was never like that during the diversion influx's back in the 70's
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