View Full Version : No LGW on BBC2
BBC 2 teletext on page 440 (and numerous other pages following in sequence) carries arrival times for all main airports. However, today the 2 pages (pages 446 and 447) for LGW - ie North and South - carried a caption reading something like "Gatwick Airport no longer makes this information available to the BBC. Please telephone the number below."
That number below proves to be expensive and a long time getting to the point ie when`s the flight due?`
racedo
4th Nov 2010, 18:19
Gatwick Airport | Parking, Hotels, Flight Information & Duty Free (http://www.gatwickairport.com/)
:ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:
racedo - teletext may be a useful back-up option for those who don't have internet access?
davidjohnson6
4th Nov 2010, 19:42
A very large proportion of people in the UK have access to the Internet - even if many of them choose not to use it.
The BBC have announced that Ceefax will be closed in 2012. Audience numbers have been falling over the years.
For any organisation (e.g. an airport) to provide a Teletext data feed costs money to keep it going and reliable.
Are there really enough people out there who want arrival times on their TV instead of their PC for Gatwick to consider it worthwhile ?
tubby linton
4th Nov 2010, 20:03
The teletext service is always a useful alternative when one's children are on the computer for hours doing their homework and you are trying to find out if your aircraft is going to be on time!
Sorry if I'm out of touch with the UK but didn't Teletext close down last year aside from selling holidays and horse racing?
Can't blame Gatwick, text services are growing increasingly irrelevant
niknak
4th Nov 2010, 21:02
The BBC have announced that Ceefax will be closed in 2012
Correct, but, if you select BBC1 or 2 via the digital service, press the red button and select the travel section, the same information (including Gatwick) is available there and will be so well after the digital switchover when Ceefax dies forever.
Sorry niknak but the LGW info is not now available on the red button on BBC. The message says that the information is no longer made available to the BBC. Accepting the point about the internet, if you are not on the net all the time it is very useful to have the information available at the touch of a button. It seems a shortsighted approach bt LGW management given that almost every other airport has arrivals info included on the red button.
davidjohnson6
5th Nov 2010, 19:42
It seems a shortsighted approach bt LGW management given that almost every other airport has arrivals info included on the red button. When multiple organisations contribute to a particular service, there has to be one organisation which is the first to cease providing the service. If numerous airports ceased providing the service on the same day, one would imagine the organisations were somehow colluding.
As an aside, many people now have either a Blackberry, or some kind of Internet enabled phone (e.g. iPhone or Android device) with a tariff that provides a large monthly allowance of data for surfing. Should be quite possible to check arrival times with that as well