Storm Ciara ATC Cancellations
 

Good afternoon,

I’m looking for some help with a flight cancellation I had on the morning of Monday 10th February. I am arguing with BA over the cause and they are claiming it had to be cancelled due to reduced ATC arrival rates into LGW due to storm Ciara on Sunday 9th February (BA 2501 EDI-LGW 10/02/2020, starts in the morning as the BA 2500 from LGW).

I’ve been an airline pilot for over 20 years and my anecdotal investigation would indicate that this had ceased before the morning of 10th Feb. Does anyone remember or have info on when the restrictions were in place?

Many thanks and if it helps me to prove they’re telling porkies I’ll buy you a beer if you’re ever up in EDI!

Many thanks

Arrivals into LGW on 9th Feb were reduced to 8 p/h between 7am-5pm, temporarily dipping to 2 p/h at one point in the day. They increased back up to 55 p/h from 7:55PM onwards.

Thanks very much for that. Is 55 p/h seen as it being back to ‘normal’?

I think so. They did drop by half to 26 p/h again the following morning on 10th for the same reasons, and stayed that way all day I believe.

Ok. Flight was due to leave LGW at 0735 up to EDI on 10th as first sector of the day so maybe they are telling the truth.

Many thanks.

Arrivals into Gatwick at 55ph seen as normal?

Are we sure?

Just going by what they published in their arrivals flow-rate log for those 2 days.

55 I am guessing idle flow with not enough demand for AMAN?? 26 I again guess is normal single runway ops with similar outbound flow?

BraceBrace,

The severely reduced flow rates during the day on the Sunday meant that most of the airbuses in Europe were facing hideous CTOT’s for their return to LGW. I’m led to believe there were a significant number of unscheduled nightstops that evening as crew hours ran out. In addition, handling at LGW was severely affected as the North side of Pier 1 and pier 3 were wearing the brunt of the winds. We ran out of hours before push, despite being assigned a jet that arrived the previous day. This is in addition to any go around sand diversions etc.

i hope this information is helpful to you.