Manchester Airport 28th May

[NOJACKETSREQUIRED2]

For those of you operating out of Manchester on May 28th this is the date for the the Champions League Final at Old Trafford Manchester.
200 extra slots have been allocated for the the influx of supporters from Italy/Spain,with the possibility of the second runway being closed for parking!!.
3 tonnes extra on the fuel please!!.

NJR.

[bagpuss lives]

I can't wait :D

[scoot]

Manchester airport will have major staffing problems during the champions league final

My partner works for MAPlc and has received a 40% pay cut recently as have her colleagues in security, car parks and other sections.

The airport are asking for volunteers to work on the 28th May offering double time o/t as aposed to single time o/t plus £100
but as you can imagine 99% of the workforce have stuck 2 fingers up at the airport.

my partner is working that night and is dreading it.

What ever the airport offers financially will not be enough, after the way they have been treated by the airport.

[AeroFoil]

To those who have stuck two fingers up at MAN airport plc i say...
Good on you!! After reading that the security staff have been reduced dramatically whilst the big cheeses accept MASSIVE pay bonuses (£thousands!!!) i say this is a good opportunity to show the bosses at MAplc what aristocrats they are being!

I realise this may affect my flying via delays however i will not moan as i support the staff who have been blatently messed about by the airport plc.

Good luck
I will watch to see what happens

Dave

[Anti Skid On]

Astute charter operators may also consider using the above; both were used to good effect during Euro 2000.

[nitefliteonly]

Manchester airport will be in trouble on 28 may, they want over 100 security staff to volunteer for overtime but as scoot has stated they have got no chance.

Because of the bad pay and conditions at MAPlc more experienced staff are leaving all the time. The airport can't recruit new staff fast enough to replace them.

(Wonder Why ?)

The airport is looking at an extra 40,000 pax on top of the normal 50,000 summer pax

Should be interesting, maybe the fat cat bosses Teale, Spooner and Muirhead will help out.

[CainanUK]

Everyone always talks about the MAPLC staff as being screwed about, and I agree that they are, but what about the ground staff specifically at the handling agents? Last I checked, we were some of the lowest payed ground workers in the civilised world and many of our conditions arent all that great. Last I checked, MAPLC security staff and car park attendants arent out there turning aircraft? ALL the handling agent staffs are SEVERELY undermanned and I think we are gonna end up looking like a monkey screwing a football on 28/05/03 if we arent careful!!

[scoot]

CAINANUK

You are right everbody is getting shafted at the airport from what I hear.

There is only one way to change things and that is for all the workers at the various companies to walk out and shut the place down.

Hit where it hurts.

IN THE POCKET !

The trouble is the airlines want the handling done for nothing with the best customer service, it just dosn't happen that way, you get what you pay for !

I believe Ringway Handling are balloting their members now because MAPlc have decided to cut their wages again.

[sisyphus1965]

I think you have got to view the situation from the view point of MAPlc. A few years ago they had a virtual monopoly in the North of England and could afford to charge airlines as much as they could get away with and pay staff extremely good wages.

Times have changed. The explosion in LCCs has seen passengers tempted away to other airports. I recall a number of years ago the airports projections envisaged well in excess of 20m passengers by 2003. Consider wher it is currently at.

Something has to be done, costs have to be reduced if MAN is not to whither and die. The reduction of staff and wages is an obvious way of achieving this. The noticable lack of capital investment since the opening of Runway 2 is another.

I am sure the board of MAPlc would love 23m passengers in 2003 with an annual growth of 10% and happy well paid staff. The way the aviation market has evolved this is not going to happen. Who would have thought that ten years ago MAN would be fighting with LPL for passengers?

Despite being owned by the local authorities of Greater Manchester the airport is still a business. Businesses have to make profits to survive. MAPlc has finally woken up to the fact that it cannot remain aloof from the LCC market and is having to reduce it's cost base to compete in this sector.

As uncomfortable as this is for the employees it is unfortunately a fact of life in the world we now live in.

So try to give MAPlc some credit for trying adapt to the new business climate in civil aviation.

[scoot]

SISYPHUS1965

You have to take into account 11 september for the reduction in passengers.

Can you tell me how many airports in the uk have cut their security staff and wages post 11 sept ?

THE ANSWER IS NON except Manchester

BAA pay their security staff nationwide in excess £20k pa
in the USA they Federalised security taking it away from the airports, airlines and private companies as they could not be trusted, as they operated in the 'lowest bidders wins'.

MAPlc cut the wages of their staff, but don't forget the directors Muirhead, Teale, Spooner and the rest of them received over 50% pay rises Muirhead got over £90,000 pay rise

[sisyphus1965]

I think you will find passenger growth at the airport was below projections before September 11th. Growth was slower than expected as a direct result of Easyjet at LPL.

Whatever private business sector you look in there is a huge variation in wages paid for comparable jobs. That is free market capitalism for you - supply and demand.

As far as the directors huge pay rises are concerned I have to agree with you. It is a symptom of the greedy "fat cat" culture which prevails in the boardrooms of most British companies. The attitude is
- costs have been cut by £xxxxxxxx, job well done, pay rises all round!

[master slug]

Its all very well us talking about the extra 200+ planes coming in, The problem is who's transferring the punters off the planes to the coaches. Plus do we have enough steps for the a/c the answer is I think not. FACT we do not have enough coaches for the transfers. Lets hope these fans dont have any baggage, because if they do god help that piece of cr*p they have the nerve to call a baggage system. It failed again the other day, and the almighty overlords( maplc ) had the nerve to say there was nothing wrong with it.
Going back to the football flights u cannot blame people not wanting to work for the airport bearing in mind of the after taste that the recent shafting has left in the mouths of the workers. The city of Manchester should be proud on the night of the 28th as host country for this event Its just a shame that those penny pinching lowlifes who run the airport have left a bitter taste in the workforce.......


All we can say is sorry


But when u work for a company that runs every thing on a shoe-string. plus lets not forget more changes are on the way


Baggage handlers are in for yet another shafting.

these poor sods got shafted over ten years ago and now they face yet another shafting by the airport.

When will it all stop.

[Eff Oh]

Don't see what all the fuss is. GLA coped easily when the Champion's League Final was played at Hampden Park last year. There is plenty of space in MAN I doubt they will park on 24L.

[usernothername]

If they've made cost savings on ground staff how come they can afford to pay a guy to stand by the passport control in T3 and shout "Passports open and ready". I've passed through there maybe 12 times this year and he's always there; I've never seen him do anything else. How do other airports cope without this essential service!

[Scottie Dog]

I will not make any comment with regards to the security issue, however I understand that all of the other issues raised have been taken into account.

Handling agents are, I believe, bringing in - if required - additional equipment for the period in question. I also have heard that extra coaches are being hired for the occasion.

The proof of the pudding will be in the eating. There are certain people who seem to use this site for what appear to be political reasons to knock the airport. I am not employed by the authority and take no sides, however I have seen the airport grow from the days when I was a kid and visited in the mid-1950's. If the authority screws up then let the people responsible have egg on their face and face the wrath of many people. If all goes well then give credit where credit is due.

Lets think positively and try to make the day as smooth as possible for all those who will be passing through the airport.

Cheers

Scottie Dog

[cargo boy]

I've seen the plans and R2 is definitely earmarked as a parking lot. Expect some congestion and delays on that day.

The plans for handling and parking are certainly ambitious but considering the Heath-Robinsonesque ideas used for parking guidance used in T2 (traffic lights requiring a human who is qualified to operate them) and T1 (mirrors and contortions), visitors to Wythenshaw Municipal on the 28th are going to find it 'interesting' to say the least.

As for the rest of us who have to operate regular scheduled flights, don't expect anything different from a normal day with single runway ops. The guys and girls in the tower will no doubt provide their usual excellent service, hampered only by ground ops jobsworths trying to dictate nonsensical directives in order to justify their employment. :rolleyes:

[mantug01]

One thing is for sure on the 28th, Our department will be looking after our usual schd flights first then meeting any football flights after. ( thats what normally happeneds anyway)

Look after those who pay our wages.

I doubt youll see any of us running around, unless its in the opposite direction :O

[CarltonBrowne the FO]

The guys and girls in the tower will no doubt provide their usual excellent service....
To be fair, even though AFAIK they are underpaid and overworked, I have found the ground ops staff at MAN to be among the most efficient I have seen anywhere- usually living up to the high standards exhibited by MAN ATC. Sure, they have their bad days, but their performance on a bad day is roughly on a par with everyday ops at many mainland European airports...

[superspotter]

Half of you bleating on about what a sham it will turn out to be,I bet it will all run like clockwork!!
As for there not being enough coaches for the fans, I was up in Glasgow last year and the coaches transporting the fans to and from the stadium were from all over the country including Devon!!:ok:

[groundhugger]

think you will find that gla would never have coped if they had had all the flights which arrived in Scotland ovetr those 3-4 days as Edi had approx 20 extra flights if I remember correctly:rolleyes:

Hugger

[PaperTiger]

Are these going to be 'primetime' arrivals ? I don't know the match time but I thought fans usually arrived and departed in the wee hours.

[NOJACKETSREQUIRED2]

Lastest info is there are approx 170 EXTRA flights arriving between 0600 and 1500 with a large amount of widebodied including 4 AZ 767's,1 MD-11,Volare A330's,EuroFly 767's,Lauda Italy 767's to name a few.
Good luck all.

NJR.

[Landing_24R]

The provisional timetable for extra flights at Manchester sees the following airlines expected (not movements):

Volare A330s
Volare A321s
Britannia B752s B763s
LTU A321s
Alitalia MD80s
Alitalia B763s
Alitalia MD11s
Transavia B738s
Alisea Airlines B733s
Air Jet 146s
Air One B734s
Azzura Air 146s
Meridiana MD80s
Air Excel ERJ145s
Premiair A330s
Austrian Airlines A321s
Futura B734s
Futura B738s
Dutchbird B752s
Star Air A320s
Spanair MD80s
Excel Airways B762s
KLM FK70s
Lauda Italy (op by Livingstone) A321s
Neos B737NGs
Viking MD80s
Eurofly A320s
Air Scandic A300s
Air Scandic B752s
LTE B752s
LTE A321s

Plus several bizjet/corporate aircraft.

A full timetable of expected extra flights can be found here:

http://www.tasmanchester.com/html/28_29_30_may.html

Cheers
Landing_24R

[knobbygb]

How will using 24L/6R for parking work with no parallel taxiway? There'd have to be a 'last in - first out' type system which is not evident in the schedules. Sureley only the first 800m or so could be used along with all the associated taxiways?

Preliminary schedules suggest that there will be 67 airliners and 37 corporate jets/light a/c on the ground at peak time between 18:00 and 23:00, with 95 of these scheduled to depart between 23:00 and 03:00. Anyone fancy doing overtime in the noise complaints department Thursday morning?

[Mouser]

So there,s no chance of any other nearby airports picking up any bits of extra traffic.

[spekesoftly]

I really do hope everything runs smoothly at Manchester on the 28th, but using runway 24L/06R for aircraft parking intrigues me. Single runway ops just when two runways would be really needed to handle the increased traffic? I don't wish to sound negative, but should even a minor incident block the runway in use, (and 'sod's law' often picks the most inopportune moment), then delays/divs-out could be considerable. I trust that suitable contingency plans are in place, and that my concerns are unfounded.

[Curious Pax]

Press release from the airport states that Runway 2 will now remain open, including the lunchtime period when it normally shuts. Taxiways will be used for parking instead, which should make an excellent overhead shot at about 1900 if anyone has a helicopter! Latest airliner schedule gives 272 movements from 26th-29th, including 118 arrivals from 0635-1745 on the 28th, plus 37 private jets arrivals!

[scoot]

Airport security plea to workers

byHelen Tither

MANCHESTER Airport is calling on its office workers to act as security staff for the European Champions League final.

An e-mail has been sent to all airport staff asking for help with loading X-ray machines and checking boarding cards during the coming busy weekend.

According to the airport's estimates, 400 extra aircraft and 33,000 fans are expected for the final at Old Trafford next Wednesday. Police are planning a huge increase in security to keep apart fans from fierce rivals Juventus and AC Milan.

But union officials say the airport is still short of security workers to carry out vital duties when the fans return home.

Plea for help

Transport and General Workers' Union rep Brian Bowan said the e-mail was a plea for help from the company because there aren't enough security guards to do the job.
He said guards had been offered treble time to work the shift but had refused because of pay cuts of about £10,000 last year and increases in hours.
"The company is saying it has got insufficient volunteers to man the check-ins for people returning from the final.

"It has offered security guards treble time but they have still got insufficient numbers.

"So they now appear to have asked people right across the airport to see if they would be prepared to come in.

Concerns

"We have had a meeting with the company to express our concerns about whether these people would receive training to do the job."

An airport spokesman said staff would not be acting as security officers and would not be wearing uniforms. She refused to say whether the number of security staff needed had been recruited but said people were still volunteering.

"Those jobs are usually done by security officers but on occasions like the champions league we do ask for volunteers to help with the processing. They will be trained to the same standards as security staff."

Manchester evening News 23/05/03

[master slug]

After years of being mistreated its nice for the boot to be on the other foot.

who's head will roll for this screwup I wonder.

Its a shame that the public dont see how the Labour run Airport treat its workers.

Lets hope the punters dont have bags. cos if they do there will be alot of rush - bags lying around.