A daft question?

Why are they not resurfacing individaul sections of the runway in turn to aviod this situation? I am assuming that large lengths of the runway are rather slippery currently?

Yes, BA, EZY, FCA, TCX, Air Malta, KLM(from the 1050 on), XLA, have all cancalled their flights out of Bristol with most transferring PAX to CWL or BHX.

Still at least the NIMBY's have nothing to shout about for a few days!
No pollution ere my babers!
No bloody planes either!

What next?
 

What can the beleaguered management of BRS do? Presumably 1) their contractors have skilled people who have to sleep, and 2) the contractors don't have spare capacity sitting around to throw at this problem. So they can't just close for a few days and get the job finished.

If a re-think about the process of the operation is required (ie finishing a section completely before opening the runway for use again rather than laying a base layer, opening then closing again to complete the surface) the implications of that could be substantial.

As it stands, EZY and the other operators won't be returning until the problem is resolved (if only for PR reasons - now that they have implied it's unsafe to operate from BRS, they will need extra reassurance that they can re-start ops there).

It's January, Bristol is on high ground on the western approaches, and must suffer a fair amount of rainfall at this time of year. So how long will it be before a solution is reached?

Finally, how did Luton manage to complete a similar exercise during the last few months without suffering the same problems?

This is a serious enquiry, not a poke at anyone.

As Smile has indicated and the BBC are quoting that upto nine airlines
are refusing to operate thru BRS due to the runway - is this unprecedented?
LSG6753- you make some valid points - this is going to play havoc with operations every time the r/way is considered wet-
remember we're only in January.
Hope all parties come to a safe conclusion - IMHO

Sky News are quoting this forum! :}

I wrote the above on the 30th of December,when no one else replied to the post I thought perhaps I had over reacted,but in the light of what has happened maybe not.
Merchant Venturer,I expect that at this very moment the owners of Bristol Airport are preparing a press release expressing full confidence in the M.D and as any Football manager knows that's just one step away from being shown the door.

Have spent an hour this morning explaining to two people travelling AGP-BRS tomorrow, that the problem is not of Easyjet's making.

All they could do was slag off Easy and they are still not convinced! :ugh: :ugh:

Maybe, maybe not? AFAIK, a centre section of the runway is slippery when wet and that aircraft handling difficulties may be experienced during crosswind conditions (from the NOTAMS). Yet some commercial traffic continues to operate without problem.
Perhaps rather than a blanket ban on operating out of BRS, it should be left to the Captains discretion, taking current conditions (wetness, wind, braking efficiency) that prevail at the time of arrival into consideration.

As has now been explained umpteen times, different aircraft, different parameters. Come on, you're a pilot! :)

Wouldn't exactly help customer relations, would it? You'd end up with a situation where most pilots would divert anyway but no-one would know where they were going to end up and the knock-on effect on the next flight on the aircraft concerned would cause chaos - "Well, it was coming here but then it diverted at the last minute. Can we get the passengers who're in Departures back out again and onto some coaches to the diversion airfield in time for a flight or not?" And then the next sector, and the next...

Umpteen times? Where?
So what makes CO's 757's and FR's 737's different?

Originally R&N; this level of detail is also now available on the BBC Website, BBC Bristol Website, Sky News, ITV... :)

Are you concerned that EZY etc. stopped flying or that Ryanair etc. carried on? Apparently there has been a vid of a rather interesting Ryanair landing recently airing on Sky.

Yes, saw it on ITV, the spray cming up from the bird, amazing, and then to CO flgiht, took up all the runway but I would say it slid on the centre section, unlike the Ryanair one wich you could see sliding.

Bristol Airport has announced on Sky News that the airport is shut until tomorrow afternoon while contractors sort out the problem.

SAM-EMA

Yes, I've just read the entire thread. Very interesting.

Which is why I ended up on pprune - just in the wrong thread :ugh:
You cannot believe anything that the media has to say about aviation!

I am better informed having read the other thread. Never had any idea it was such a big problem. It was EJ's fiasco's this summer in NCL that initially made me think they may have had an ulterior motive. I stand corrected.

The CO76 into BRs i showing delayed, and its ETA into BRS is after 10am, so when does the runway open?

9 or 10 airlines, 369 flights. Whatever.

I was mislead by the press reports on the Indonesian aircrash, so I don't know how much credence to put into press reports.

Ops Normal PM Monday
 

Things seem to be a litte quite a the moment are the airport authorites still hopping to be operational by this afternoon??

Or is it another day of problems for the punters and airline operations??

British Airways Franchise Partner GB Airways has announced the adhoc cancellation of its Bristol to Tenerife South service on the following dates:
Bristol - Tenerife South (BA6834/35) Saturday service cancelled between 5 May and 27 October 2007.

Customers booked to travel on these services will be re-accommodated on BA6834/35 Bristol – Tenerife South on the Friday service, with the exception of passengers booked on BA6835 on 2 June 2007 and BA6834 on 26 May 2007 whose bookings will be cancelled.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that although it's been a media frenzy that has not bode well for BRS, I really think that it'll all be forgotten about by pax very soon and business will be strong for BRS again this year.

At the end of the day it was a problem, and it's been sorted, after April the airport will not relay the runway for at least 10 years and only then will a little smidgen of a report show up on ITV West news with a much older looking Lisa Asiz commenting "well remember 2007 at BRS?" most people will say "uuughhhh no" "they were relaying the runway and it went tits up for a weekend" we will all think "ooooh yeah, that was well amusing" and that'll be it!

Time to move on now folks, every airline apart from XL is back running services from BRS, XL will probably be as of tomorrow and the airports and airlines will thrash out a suitable deal for the inconvienence caused, who knows it may even work out well if you have a think about it, why would an airline ask for a cash settlement when they could get a cheeky little deal on slots, landing fees or handling fees, thus enabling more flights!

I know for a fact the airline that I work for has a VERY good relationship with BRS and a hiccup like this would not put them off keeping BRS as a major base in our network.

Looking back, yes the airport was a bit slow on the uptake of how serious the situation had become, and I admit that I had a moan about it on prune, but they must of been pretty shell shocked to see 10 airlines in less than 24 hours not wanting to fly in or out, and as Tony Hallwood said in interviews yesterday that they had to seek CAA approval etc etc.... to put these grooves in the TEMPORARY surface, we all know deep down that this approval would of taken a while to come through.

Now lets get back to the usual discussion of CWL bashing! only messing I think CWL/BHX and EXT deserve a pat on the back and a round of applause as do the airline staff and ground handling agents in BRS :D :D
Monthly rant over, quite tame today I feel :}