Oh, c'mon!
There are not even 2" of snow around London and they have started cancelling flights from Gatwick. Really? Does the country have to come to a still everytime a bit of snow falls? Tens of countries manage with 10 times more snow. We've been told for weeks that it's going to snow.

I don't think it affects my flight, but it's still unbelivable.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:13, 3 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

Heathrow and gatwick have flights taking off and landing every 90 or so seconds.
They cancel some flights so they have a chance to grit the runways every hour or so.

It's perfectly believable.
(PsychoChomp, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:28, Reply)

If it's like that, then yes
But that's not what you see on the news. However, I'd understand better if they delayed the flights so they can grit the runways, rather than cancelling them.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:30, Reply)

Then everyone would be delayed.
I figure it's better for them to cancel some and then the other planes take off on time.
( girlinthehole, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:33, Reply)

But that's unfair
to the people who has them cancelled.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:34, Reply)

Then everything would just get progressively later until the system falls apart
They start off cancelling UK internal flights because people can use trains instead. Then northern europe, and so on. It does make sense.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:35, Reply)

Then why has London City shut?

(berk, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:30, Reply)

Because it's shit.

(PsychoChomp, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:31, Reply)

because it has a very short runway and no margin for error, what with it being in the river.
So if it gets slippy they don't risk it.

Plus I imagine there is a visibility issue.

Mind you, Embra airport was shut all yesterday and that has quite a lot of snow facilities.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:33, Reply)

It's not a great excuse
But we don't get it regularly enough to have the infrastructure in place to cope with it. It's not worth Gatwick's while to have loads of snow clearing equipment and de-icing stuff that would be redundant every other year. Plus, most places that have serious snow don't have the flight densities that Gatwick and Heathrow do.

Same argument goes for road snowploughs, gritters etc etc.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:31, Reply)

I think it is worth it
Last year they lost loads of money. A lot more than would have been to buy the clearing equipment.

Same argument goes for all of the country having to stop for 1 or 2 weeks.

It's been 3 years on a row, now. I'd think that is quite regular.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:34, Reply)

It's not, or they would have bought it.
One thing these people have is a sound business sense, even if it seems not. If it was worth it financially they would have bought them

It's not just buying the kit. It's storing it, maintaining it, paying trained operators who may only work for 2 weeks a year, etc etc

It's only been 2 bad years, and it's only been a week so far this time. Before that, there was probably 10-15 years with no serious disruption in the south east
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:38, Reply)

you should see grenada
you aren't allowed on the runway at all if it is raining. it rains ALMOST EVERY DAY! we were delayed for about 3 hours waiting for the rain to stop, most annoying.

also when we went to florida last year, we landed back in manchester with all the snow. the steward said that the day before the same plane had been stuck on the runway for 8 hours because of health and safety concerns about ice on the runway, and they had run out of food/drinks etc. can you imagine... a 9 hour flight and then 8 hours stuck on the runway, how horrendous.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 15:42, Reply)