Melbourne airport delays, why?
 

Noticed this week its been predominately N/S runway operations and alot of inbound flights delayed as a result.
Today I have seen flights landing to the east, thats got to be pretty rare!
can anyone shed some light on what's going on?
cheers
AK

Where have you been? We’ve been using 09 for arrivals and 16 for departures for some time now. When the wind is right of course.

I think the reason for single runway ops has been done to death on other threads. More than 20kt crosswind or 5kt tailwind (no tailwind if the runway is other than dry) precludes ATC from nominating a particular runway.

Why, oh why?

Because Australian airports are about parking and retail outlets.

They're not about essential infrastructure and that attitude pervades to runway and taxyway infrastructure.

Thirdworld ****hole, dressed up all pretty on the outside.

Was chatting to cabin crew and they were spitting chips about Mel airport lol...
World's most liveable city eh?
:rolleyes:
cheers
AK

Lately 09 often has a tailwind component.... which one has to wonder why you aren't using 27? The crosswind has to be the same on both, although the Melbourne anemometer sure does some funky stuff when it comes to the crosswind!!

At the risk of thread drift, Mr Approach, you listening? ;)

Since we can nominate a runway with up to 5kt tailwind, this might be the best option. There may well be a varying wind with overall more tailwind on 27. It would be good if we could use the central anemometer to decide on rwy configuration but we don’t have access to it so we assess each threshold indication and go from there. If we changed runways with each wind change I’m sure there’d be lots more complaints. Particularly with the delays incurred by changing from 09 for arrivals to 27 for departures and/or arrivals.

Infrastructure sweated where the quick buck is for shops and carparks.
Aeronautical infrastructure, too expensive and takes too long to generate a return.

Ain't privatisation just grand!

Remember a monopoly isn't a bad thing when the government is dumb enough to give you one!

Can we fix the Lizzy arrival onto 09?

Why do we have to be 6000 so far out?

So many of the STARS (not just MEL) are so inefficient, getting the inbounds down low way to early, wasting fuel and time.

Tell Greta - she'll get it fixed in an instant

interesting snippet from the q cp on that recently, alas, sydney only it seems at this point... must be costing actual money to get something looked at

Anecdotally, I’ve heard that the crosswind/tailwind issue has to get past the Pilots’ union regardless of Airservices’ or CASA’s will (or lack thereof) to make any changes. And the union’s position is that it will not be inclined to change. I hopefully stand to be corrected.

Not sure which union would need to approve, nor why they would even need to be involved. Its up to the pilot to accept it seeing they are the ones in the control seat. There's also more than one union......

Pretty? Not even close. And the longer the delays the more they earn from parking fees. Win win!

The majority of Australian airports are broken , the complete disregard for runway and terminal infrastructure is appalling to say the least .
I wish the government would seize a 50% stake in each airport and build the new runways and infrastructure.
I live in hope that Brisbane is the only airport on track ,

.......which is why I said anecdotally. I haven’t checked for accuracy, so thanks for clearing that up.

Hi Capn - I'm listening!
Arguably Melbourne is a classic example of a monopoly sweating their assets - the aircraft all end up landing there anyway, so they get their money, and as far as I am aware the airport does not have to compensate the airlines for loss of profit due diversion or holding.
Contrary to these posts, though, Melbourne has been doing a lot of taxiway building, voluntarily put in CAT III on RWY 16, and is actively planning a parallel runway. (To continue my parrying with you Capn, none of these things were required by CASA, although they all had to be approved by CASA!)
It is good to see Melbourne ATC getting some use out of RWY 09 - for years I seem to recall they claimed they could not use it, and admittedly taxiing aircraft for departure 09 would be a pain in the A with having to cross 16. Obviously traffic pressure is having it's inevitable effect.
So why the alleged delays? Melbourne has CAT II and CAT III approaches but only on 16 and 27, however if LAHSO cannot be used then it is a single runway airport. However Gatwick 2018 movements were 283,919 and Melbourne 245,766 so having only one runway is not the problem - perhaps our ATC procedures are not as slick as the UK - but that definitely is thread drift!

Whoa whoa whoa, hold everything..... actively planning? Have the got the direction sorted yet??

They've had the direction sorted for ages - not the same direction the whole time mind you - but the direction ....

Like the argument, it’s probably going to be circular!