Stansted-3
Stansted Airport delays: Turmoil as hundreds of passengers stranded overnight after snow and ice sparks cancellations
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And reportedly hundreds of stranded Ryanair passengers, but no Ryanair staff or representatives to help. If true then its obvious that Ryanair learned nothing from its troubled year and cares even less. No change there then!
Join Date: Jan 2012
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Continuous snow showers until 1300h
Unable to keep runway clear of contamination due to continuous snow showers
Contaminated runway (10mm of slush) which affects take off performance
Strong, gusting northerly crosswind which, combined with contaminated runway meant take-off and landings were out of limits for much of the morning due reduced crosswind limits for, in particular, departing aircraft.
A simplified explanation - does that answer your criticism?
Unable to keep runway clear of contamination due to continuous snow showers
Contaminated runway (10mm of slush) which affects take off performance
Strong, gusting northerly crosswind which, combined with contaminated runway meant take-off and landings were out of limits for much of the morning due reduced crosswind limits for, in particular, departing aircraft.
A simplified explanation - does that answer your criticism?
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FR don't seem to have any more staff manning the ticket desk in STN than they had 15 years ago, even though the airline has grown 5 fold. Maybe they should nopw call it the info and rerouting desk to get a better handle on at what times it needs to be ramped up.
This airport would be such a good candidate for a few soup kitchens and some emergency fast-track bedding since its contantly closure prone due to it being the catch-all airport for Southern England emergencies, and propensity for delays during any snow flurries. Maybe some entrpreneurial local soul could offer it as a service.
This airport would be such a good candidate for a few soup kitchens and some emergency fast-track bedding since its contantly closure prone due to it being the catch-all airport for Southern England emergencies, and propensity for delays during any snow flurries. Maybe some entrpreneurial local soul could offer it as a service.
Last edited by vikingivesterled; 28th Dec 2017 at 21:29.
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This airport would be such a good candidate for a few soup kitchens and some emergency fast-track bedding since its constantly closure prone due to it being the catch-all airport for Southern England emergencies, and propensity for delays during any snow flurries. Maybe some entrepreneurial local soul could offer it as a service.
Also where would you put it, the place is practically full to bursting
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I am also a bit puzzled why Stanstead and Luton seemed to have so many problems in what after all is normal December weather.
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Davews only needed to travel 1.5 miles from his route on the A12 into Danbury, where so much fell there was still some around late yesterday. So how he could ascertain from his location that the conditions at STN can't have been too bad I'm not really sure.
davews
It's largely down to airfield elevation in those conditions and with STN being around 350ft AMSL and Chelmsford being 108ft AMSL you have your answer. LTN is around 550ft AMSL which explains why they suffer more snowfall in general.
It's largely down to airfield elevation in those conditions and with STN being around 350ft AMSL and Chelmsford being 108ft AMSL you have your answer. LTN is around 550ft AMSL which explains why they suffer more snowfall in general.
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Was going to say people really need to go back to Cuillin Heights explanation as he was bang on with it, but you beat me to it.
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STN is not full at all. There is plenty of room for expansion if one goes to the other side of the car park where there are plenty of empty fields. Along Terminal Road South there is room for a simple open plan structure. And the walk there is no longer than from the satellite tram to the terminal's exit door.
And if the airline(s) set up an info and rerouting desk in the same place, it has the aditional advantage that it gets passengers that will no longer travel that day out of the limited departure area of the terminal, to free up space for they who's flights are not cancelled.
But it requires cooperation between the airport and it's airline(s) to make it happen. Beyond the notion of how to fleeze passengers by making them uncomfortable.
Last edited by vikingivesterled; 29th Dec 2017 at 11:50.
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Posters with light weight comments & amateur observations regarding R/W ops at STN on 27.12 need refer no further than post 346 from Cuillin Heights.
Second complete closure of the field with Ryanair calling it quits in the space of a month. But, nothing to see here.....
Do please stop calling other posters amateurs and lightweights!
Last edited by Skipness One Echo; 29th Dec 2017 at 18:02.
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In all fairness there are way more armchair experts than professional pilots on these forums.
At the end of the day Stansted closed and it closed for a reason. Something that their operational team would have had to assess and make a professional decision on the day.
Ryanair and their handling of the situation in the terminal is another matter altogether. However if you pay peanuts you can't expect much else when it all goes to pot.
At the end of the day Stansted closed and it closed for a reason. Something that their operational team would have had to assess and make a professional decision on the day.
Ryanair and their handling of the situation in the terminal is another matter altogether. However if you pay peanuts you can't expect much else when it all goes to pot.
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You require to read my post again with more care One Echo
Anyhoo, anyone know WHY if it stopped snowing at 1pm the rest of the day was lost?
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The time I've spent in the Baltic states has given me a far greater appreciation for our inability to deal with a small amount of snow. It's simply not worthwhile having the infrastructure in place to deal with something that happens so rarely.
But... once the snow stops, and even if staff (particularly the lower paid staff that probably don't live anywhere close by) have trouble getting to work, there should be some period after which they can get things running again!
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From a terminal working base perspective of myself.
‘Stansted Airport’ closed the runway for a period to clear the snow. This was delayed due to the heavy snow fall, making the clousure longer than planned.
‘Ryanair’ cancelled the flights to try to eliminate heavy flight delays. The problem lies here mainly as ‘Swissport’ didn’t have the staff levels to cope with the high demand of rebooking and enquiries due the cancellation. Added to that extra staff levels struggled to get to the airport as public transport was in havoc and the roads where not being cleared.
Unfortunately this has given ‘Stansted Airport’ and ‘MAG’ a bit of a backlash in the press and on here. If you where in the the terminal, ‘MAG’ representatives where trying to help where they could, but again staffing levels get stretched in these situations and normal duties have to still be carried out.
This was not helped by a fire alarm for the airport to deal with as well.
If anyone disagree’s with these point fair enough. But this is how I saw things from working at the airport.
‘Stansted Airport’ closed the runway for a period to clear the snow. This was delayed due to the heavy snow fall, making the clousure longer than planned.
‘Ryanair’ cancelled the flights to try to eliminate heavy flight delays. The problem lies here mainly as ‘Swissport’ didn’t have the staff levels to cope with the high demand of rebooking and enquiries due the cancellation. Added to that extra staff levels struggled to get to the airport as public transport was in havoc and the roads where not being cleared.
Unfortunately this has given ‘Stansted Airport’ and ‘MAG’ a bit of a backlash in the press and on here. If you where in the the terminal, ‘MAG’ representatives where trying to help where they could, but again staffing levels get stretched in these situations and normal duties have to still be carried out.
This was not helped by a fire alarm for the airport to deal with as well.
If anyone disagree’s with these point fair enough. But this is how I saw things from working at the airport.