Dash Dance
 

Weipa Dance.wmv - YouTube

Bit of a stand off today, Customs came in late yesterday and parked in the bay Qantaslink use, Qantas link arrive and ask for Customs to move as they aren't allowed to park in the other bay.

Customs debate the point, Qantaslink are unmoved, 15 min later Customs move to the other bay, but then have to move again as the passengers have to walk past them as they are still running.

Well, it broke the boredom for us anyway.

What would the normal protocol be in this situation?

That the airport operator, who actually has control over the 'real estate', direct the aircraft to be parked as arranged / required, for the 'safe, orderly, expeditious flow of aircraft traffic and passengers'....??

i.e. Does not QANTASLINK pay the airport 'owners' / ad operator for the privilege of servicing Weipa, and for the SLF to use the SLF /Terminal facilities.....??

And, I know CUSTOMS pays as well - but to use the parking bays 'as directed'.....??

Happens in other places....

Cheers:ok:

Its all in Weipa's ERSA entry
 

Local traffic regulations.
Point 2. Itinerant aircraft wishing to use the RPT apron are required to contact the AD manager 48hrs prior for bay allocation.
It ain't in there just to have something between point 1 and point 3.

Seeing more and more of that sort of thing. Aircraft and passenger movements have far exceeded the capacity of a lot of smaller regional airports. It's a pain with only one or two bays available, trying to service your RPT and keep the blow-ins happy too.

Happens in Darwin a lot too. Two aircraft assigned to the same bay; first in best dressed. Second aircraft waits while ATC and safety vehicle work out which of the other half a dozen empty bays could be used. Not rocket science but it certainly is beyond some to get right!

Yep.
 

And not helped when ports become screened and half of your useable apron isn't allowed to have itinerant aircraft on it anymore, or someone goes U/S on a bay and the whole house of cards collapses, or someone overshoots a parking position because they don't know what a keyhole is or a primary stop bar is, and takes out 2 bays instead of one.

Likewise at Emerald these days. Been there with 2 on the apron and one on the runway. Shuffling like bloody tetris getting us bugsmashers on and off the runway.

Yes the population grown far in excess of the infrastructure.

Thanks for the clarification Fm, I didn't have an ERSA to hand,

I guess Rio must be feeling the pinch to cancel the planned 3rd parking bay and save a couple of $100,000.... $10M upgrade, with all the gear shipped from deep south, but logic doesn't seem to be real common around here.

And finally, it seems a breakdown between Qantas and Customs, the airport manager is never notified when they are arriving or staying.