London City Standstill?
FWIW I've just starting to hear rumours of thunderstorms causing lots of disruption to flights inbound/outbound from some of the SE UK airports this evening. I'd emphasis that is a rumour but if it is a problem perhaps thats what is causing issues at LCY?
Anyone know more?
Edit to add: Re specifically the thunderstorm rumours - here you go, just seen this, timed at 2030 UTC, on the Eurocontrol Network Ops portal:
...and 'cos I'm really bored I've also had a quick look at Flight radar and it shows the BA8474 on approach to LCY as I type but arriving about 2 hours late...
Anyone know more?
Edit to add: Re specifically the thunderstorm rumours - here you go, just seen this, timed at 2030 UTC, on the Eurocontrol Network Ops portal:
Significant Weather Affecting EGTT South sectors: Lydd, Clacton, Dover and Hurn. All these sectors are regulated at drastically reduced rates, with delays exceeding 150' till 0300 UTC tomorrow morning.
Same situation for East sector in terminal area.
This an evolving situation with further measures in Southern UK being introduced. Improvements in the near term are unlikely.
Same situation for East sector in terminal area.
This an evolving situation with further measures in Southern UK being introduced. Improvements in the near term are unlikely.
Last edited by wiggy; 25th Jul 2019 at 20:54.
https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar Rain is on its way.
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I was flying into gatwick tonight and we ended up at least 70nm off track from the timba arrival, overhead Margate. We heard lots of traffic trying to get to LCY - no arrivals because they’d run out of space on the ground, and no departures because the LTMA was already full with aircraft avoiding weather.
Props to any LTMA ATCOs reading this - they were doing a good job in a very challenging situation, with aircraft literally all over the place, going into vastly different sectors than they were planned for which must up the workload significantly.
Props to any LTMA ATCOs reading this - they were doing a good job in a very challenging situation, with aircraft literally all over the place, going into vastly different sectors than they were planned for which must up the workload significantly.
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Maybe the runway has melted!
There was no poor weather at LCY at the time, it was a pleasant eat-in-the-garden evening. The delays were brought about by weather avoidance elsewhere and ATC capacity to handle this, and to accept departures, to the extent that an inbound Dublin-LCY was diverted short into Manchester (on an evening when the Manchester to London trains have all been cancelled due to heat). Most LCY gates are filled in the evening peak, and there's little hard stand space, it is actually quite easy to get to this stage where you can't accept anything else except on a "one out-one in" basis.
Following morning there are lots of pre-planned cancellations, but the ones operating actually seem to be getting straight ins.
Following morning there are lots of pre-planned cancellations, but the ones operating actually seem to be getting straight ins.
Watched a Pegasus flight to Stansted last night head from Northern France up the North Sea to level with Hull
then towards Manchester down to almost Birmingham then decend into Stansted from north west and a Cityflyer
do the same except divert into Manchester with a problem
then towards Manchester down to almost Birmingham then decend into Stansted from north west and a Cityflyer
do the same except divert into Manchester with a problem
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A friend's Krakow -> Heathrow flight ended up being rescheduled from last night to this afternoon. It somewhat surprised me, I live ~25 min drive from LHR in west London, the weather didn't seem all that bad..........
I was flying into gatwick tonight and we ended up at least 70nm off track from the timba arrival, overhead Margate. We heard lots of traffic trying to get to LCY - no arrivals because they’d run out of space on the ground, and no departures because the LTMA was already full with aircraft avoiding weather.
Props to any LTMA ATCOs reading this - they were doing a good job in a very challenging situation, with aircraft literally all over the place, going into vastly different sectors than they were planned for which must up the workload significantly.
Props to any LTMA ATCOs reading this - they were doing a good job in a very challenging situation, with aircraft literally all over the place, going into vastly different sectors than they were planned for which must up the workload significantly.
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Many times the local weather in the vicinity of the arrival/departure airport can matter not a jot, it's weather enroute, or within the TMA where departure/arrival paths are strictly controlled and separated. Aircraft which then deviate around weather add massively to controller workload, need extra coordination between different sectors and even countries and lead to a loss of capacity in the system. With airline schedules running flat out this quickly has a knock on effect to everything, lack of parking at airports due delayed outbound, lack of airport handling, crew hours, slot times, night curfews, aircraft might be out of position, airports may temporarily 'close' to normal traffic as they have nowhere to park aircraft. In fact it's absolutely incredible the system works as well as it does, for the majority of the time.
Flying out to Margate etc, and even holding out there, is pretty standard stuff nowadays for LCY arrivals from the opposite direction, leading to the seemingly improbable situation of evening Dublin-LCY arrivals giving a view of the lights of the Northern French coastline. This was introduced a few years ago in lieu of the old direct inward route overhead Lambourne. It was meant to "improve" things, but as so often reality went the other way.
LCY has a strict policy in the morning/evening peaks of only 30 minutes turnrounds, and the stand numbers are more than adequate with this for the capacity of the runway, but the issues arise when departures cannot be accepted - quite possibly because of inbounds taking up airspace holding for them to leave !
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Margate may not be exceptional for LCY arrivals, but last night the Gatwicks which would normally be BEXIL TIMBA FL160 and below ended up coming in overhead and east of DVR heading north and descending through FL260. Quite an exciting arrival turning west up the Thames estuary then back overhead Biggin towards Gatwick. Also a nice route for a Beauvais inbound who was at FL200 near Brighton heading East, having departed Spain.
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Had a good look at it on FR last night. A bit of a unique situation caused by the proximity of LGW, LHR and LCY, and the huge cell of weather to the east over the coast that threw out all the arrivals.
As previous posters stated, a/c were skirting right around London and coming back in from the North which must have completely screwed up the usual STARS. Even some of the eastbound departures from LHR were heading South to France before heading east. Oddly though, there was the odd a/c ploughing straight through the middle. Guessing they were lucky at times to find a safe a route through the middle on the weather radar.
If you step back and think for a second and look at the volume of aircraft travelling into one of the busiest and most complex sectors in the world - hats off to the ATCO's and drivers who kept everything incident free!!
As previous posters stated, a/c were skirting right around London and coming back in from the North which must have completely screwed up the usual STARS. Even some of the eastbound departures from LHR were heading South to France before heading east. Oddly though, there was the odd a/c ploughing straight through the middle. Guessing they were lucky at times to find a safe a route through the middle on the weather radar.
If you step back and think for a second and look at the volume of aircraft travelling into one of the busiest and most complex sectors in the world - hats off to the ATCO's and drivers who kept everything incident free!!
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Not just to the north, instead of the 30 minute hop straight across the North Sea the AMS-SEN headed through Belgium to just north of Paris before heading out to the Channel and back across Kent.
