6 movements allowed until 1300 (not sure whether bst or gmt) then shut again

6 movements allowed until 1300 (not sure whether bst or gmt) then shut again

Why is it safe for these six and then shut again ??? Puzzled !!!

bbc news just flashed up that manchester was handling a diversion

only has a quick glance so dont know if it reproted more info than that, and its gone off the screen now

BBC Website says 2 take offs and 1 landing, Radio said 3 take offs and 2 landings so a little confusion reigns I think.

I think all departures have been transatlantic.

A couple to Cancun were showing, although these may have missed their slots, and Thomas Cook 330 has recently departed to SFB.

Why couldn't relatively low level turbo props, say at FL60 flights have operated to the IOM/Belfast ?

I'm glad you've said what I've been thinking. I was supposed to fly to Belfast with FlyBe today. Surely no harm at FL60? Other than burning a bit more fuel....:confused:

There has been a small window where the ash particles were not affecting the MAN area heading west out over Ireland this lunch time making it safe for aircraft movements however it was short lived in the MAN area. I believe that most of Ireland is still ok however with very little movements. Recently Aer Lingus had a departure from Dublin to Boston.

Id expect MAN to be open to traffic tomorrow:

''confirmation by National Air Traffic Services that Scottish air space is open again for business tonight and that the skies to the north and west of the geographical line between Manchester and Leeds Bradford are clear for flying through tomorrow''

And flyBE are operating MAN-BHD tomorrow. Is it safe to assume some Trans atlantic visitors could pop in also?

Looks like MAN is open from 0400 to 1000 at least. Post 1000, they're expecting to reinstate restrictions.

Im not expecting anything into MAN though.

The US flights probably wouldnt get here before 10:00, and by that point the restriction may be back in force.

Also, there are only about 8-14 stands free at MAN, so short of parking based aircraft on runway 2, I dont think we have anywhere to put the arrivals

Wanna be there

Do I detect a hint of the "cant do" attitude that riddles Manchester these days !!

Of course theres room, there are acres and acres of space.

Ever heard of top and tailing ?

Runway 2 starter strip (as per the Uefa final)

Remember 8 Eurofly A320s on 2 stands

I could go on.

I bet that no one at MAG has had the foresight to make some room for diversions, just in case:ugh:

MAN777, I would love for diversions to come in, im a believer that if they did impliment R2 parking (lets face it, with just TATL's and some northbound domestics, the place isnt going to be hugely busy), the airport could handle well over 30 aircraft.
Topping and tailing could add more to that!

I agree with you that its just management wont have the initiative to move the a/c around and accept them.

With us being much closer to Londinium, we'd be a much better prospect for LON bound diversions.

This being MAN though, well see (and although id love diversions to come in, im betting we see diddly squat tomorrow)

Wanna be there

apologies, you are obviously on the same wavelength as me:)

apparently MAN ops is insisting the airport stay shut until 1300

Are they completly stupid!!!! they are one of the very few UK airports to be given a 6 hour window to at least start to clear the US bound backlog and they are saying no???

That place is loosing the plot- completly!!!!

I think there are very few parking spaces available at MAN at the moment to except diversions. But, I expect the airport to make very little effort to help anyway, as we all remember the debacle over the winter months in not accepting diversions.
What was interesting walking through T1 and T2 yesterday about 12:00 was that the info screens were saying 'next info at 13:00' - even though at the time, it was known by all Ops agents at the airport that restrictions were in place until 18:00 at the earliest. One would assume it's good for the airport shopping tills to give people false hope :E
BTW, does anybody know how many BA aircraft are stuck on the other side of the pond roughly ??

MAN ops stupidity?
 

Yes, Manchester seems to be an airport which does not wish to make a profit, or even to satisfy its customers' requirements. Rather strange in this day and age.

Over 20 stands free at MAN, i could provide the list too.
Also, parking on the link between R1 and R2, as well as the starter strip for R2 could be used for parking as they did back for the EUFA cup, so, move all the jet2's, monarchs and so on, that arnt going anywhere and use the gates/stands for the TATL's
If they did that, may have room for over 30 flights.

Maybe the people at the airport were aware that airspace would be shut until 7pm tonight, at the absolute earliest and by making an early decision they've saved money by not having people coming in who did not need to?

Ryanair have cancelled flights till Monday, Jet2 have cancelled all flights today, maybe Manchester is just making a decision based on the circumstances.

Havent seen people criticising FR in the way MAN is being here, its the old bottle half full syndrome I guess,

I would say good call Manchester, difficult times at moment but decisions have to be made to either bring staff in or keep them at home and the more advance warning the better. If you have a number of people on call who live nearby who can get in if needed all the better as should a window become available for limited ops

Ian b

Quote from the BBC

'Manchester and Liverpool airports had been offered a six-hour window - between 0400 BST and 1000 BST - in which to operate some flights, but the changing conditions meant that was later revoked.'

Seems it wasn't a decision by Manchester ops.

People need to know what is happening it is not good enough to offer some flights
in a small window of time, people have traveled hours from MAN only to be contacted
to say you flight has been given the go ahead then they travel back to MAN only to be told sorry no flights.
Airlines need to take a leaf out of Ryanairs book and say no flights to at least monday
and on the subject of Ryanair their website has to be the best by far for keeping passengers updated and with links to other sites like the cloud map I would say Ryanairs customer service is at a very high standard I would even go as far as saying
its the most updated and easy readable airline website out there at the moment.

The flight and 2 attempted flights were all repatriation flights and were all going
out empty so could in theory go at the drop of a hat as long as crew were ready
and flight planning could be completed in time, which it appears proved impossible for 2 of the flights.
The inbound flights were both diversions and not originally due in Manchester
I presume company ops had planned these flights with the window in mind and were flexible as to where they went and had things changed early on would have either gone back to where they were from or div`d into somewhere enroute

Ian B

Re Stand availability.

As one of the posts said the Airport buried there head in the sand again.


Why not call Peter Hampson he will sort you a few no Lts more stands out as he did for the UEFA Cup Final.

No Thats to easy I will sit in me Ivory Tower looking at all the Aircraft on the stands and think of the Profit of Parking costs etc Too much hard work to put me brains in gear and move as someone said all the Jet2 Thompson etc who are clearly going no where to R2

After all dont think we will need R2 for a Few days and it will give the Handling agents something to do. The Weathers ok so the Towing Lads might be glad to go to Costa Del R2 .

Think they are using runway 2 some of the time as there is a lot of work going on near the edge of 23R/05L

Ian B

23R/05L is supposed to be closed Sunday to Thursday From 2300 to 0600 whilst they work on the runway and taxiways.

23L/05R is used during this period

I really don't understand why pepole are having a go at MAN, if they were to say to a plane over the pond that the airport is maybe going to be open at a certain time whats to say that when the plane completes it 6-10 hour journey that the air space over the UK won't be closed, so where do you think that plane is going to go?

What gets to me with this "MAN Bashing" is that a it appears to be a small number of "plane geeks" who simply want a cheap thrill by seeing some "exotic" 747 divert into MAN.

Easyjet A321 - exactly!
Nobody is going to send off L/H flights because there is an unpredictable window within an ash cloud, it is too unpredictable. Same goes for S/H, the airlines are hardly going to keep pax for days on end at an airport just in case a narrow window opens. The logistics alone are a nightmare.
It wouldn't matter what MAN does, the flights haven't left their bases, there is the best part of sweet FA airborne, and nothing to land here anyway.

Airspace open in my garden.
 

Just thought that I'd let you all know that despite NATS closing airspace, it appears that there is a small window of opportunity available above my Garden, as I have been plauged recently by low flying Wasps and Pigeons.
Don't they realise how dangerous it is to fly in these present perilous conditions.
I managed to down one wasp and upon close examination there appeared to be no damage caused by volcanic ash to its structure, but a lot caused by my spade!
This is adola69 reporting for Pprune, 6 miles west of Manchester International.

:rolleyes:

here here , this talk of handling diversions is maronic....

and why do the news bulletins keep saying a decision will be made in 12 hours, EVERY 12 hours ! blah blah blah, when its faily obvious there is not a cat in hells chance of this clearing anytime soon.........?:ugh:

And where is the Government ? I cannot believe the totol and utter abdication of any politician to assist people in some way shape or form ?

Also just out of curiousity if "the other ones blows" which is 10 times bigger , does anybody know if we will be be plunged into a new ice age ? If so it does sort of makes the General Election rather irrelevent does it not !

PS Can I also add that I also spotted a "window of opportunity" in the clear airspace near Chester, to do my lawn this morning, I thought I may have stumbled on some volcanic ash but sadly it turned out to be a bit of soil......

What exactly can the UK government do at this time? Yes there are a lot of people affected including myself...but I dont see what anyone can do. We are just waiting for this volcano to stop, and/or the weather pattern and winds aloft to divert the ash elsewhere.
Once this happens and the airspace is open, then they may be able to get something set up. Its one of the downsides of living on an island - limitted ways on and off it.

thomsons have kindly let me change my flight to next saturday to palma for no charge!!! do you think it will be operating, but monarch want me to pay 381.86 to come back, how can they cash in on people like this.

anyone know if any test flights are planned for man today or tommrow?
a couple of light aircraft have been buzzing round stockport area this afternoon.

conti onepass....Monarch are changing free of charge if you can get through to the call centre or retrospectively refunding if you use their change online facility, according to their website. If you weren't booked with Monarch originally then I expect the fare is high either becasue the flight is all but full or because they are trying to put people off booking until they know when they can actually start flying people

Diversions??
 

And two days after your posts, where are these mythical diversions?

I think that the MAN Management team are dealing with the here and now MAN777 and not taking too much notice of some half-baked wishes from a few spotters!

And as for profits, well just check out how much BAA and Peel made last year compared to MAG.

I think that the MAN Management team are dealing with the here and now MAN777 and not taking too much notice of some half-baked wishes from a few spotters!

PQC have you never heard of looking for business opportunities ? In these lean times every chance to make money should be taken, OK so the diversions didnt come this time, but they could easily have done and still might.

As far as MAG dealing with the situation here and now, well take it from me there is absolutely nowt happening airside apart from a few ops vehicles floating around looking for work. The highlight of the day was a visiting cirrus from Blackpool oh and a microlight drifted along the runway centreline. !!!

Yes I am a spotter and proud of it, but I am also an airport worker (with 30 years airside experience) that wants to see the airport survive these hard times and see jobs protected, so what is so wrong with that ?

open from 0900 tomorrow subject to no more ash cloud

Fingers crossed, but looking out the window here, 12 miles away right slap bang under the usual flight path, the sky is a very claggy browny colour. Hoping for the best and normal ops resumed asap.