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Airport.


Billy kettlefish

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14 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

So you're suggesting that the problem with the airport is that they haven't spent enough money?  The housing for the Peggy is another topic, but we mustn't give them the excuse that what is really needed is more money to spend on whatever the latest toy they fancy is.

As it happens "Mobility assistance is currently provided at the Airport by Menzies Aviation on behalf of all the airlines" they clearly have the ability to do so most of the time so why there should be these distressing gaps is for them to explain.  Of course the people, who should be holding them to account are the Airport management, but no doubt they would be quick to tell you it is nothing to do with them.  This is why these people are so keen on privatisation.

Isn't the ambulift asset DOI owned and Menzies provide only the manpower?

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2 minutes ago, Andy Onchan said:

Isn't the ambulift asset DOI owned and Menzies provide only the manpower?

Quite possibly, it will depend on the terms of the contract - also who is responsible for the maintenance of it.  You'd think a professional operator like Menzies would prefer to use their own stuff and clearly they're not providing the service properly at the moment.

If there's really been no working system since the Summer, then you can't help suspecting there's some sort of contractual dispute going on and lawyers are being paid lots of money while the less mobile get carted about like sacks.  This is another problem with privatising services - when things go wrong, they can end up being disputed rather than solved.

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5 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

Quite possibly, it will depend on the terms of the contract - also who is responsible for the maintenance of it.  You'd think a professional operator like Menzies would prefer to use their own stuff and clearly they're not providing the service properly at the moment.

If there's really been no working system since the Summer, then you can't help suspecting there's some sort of contractual dispute going on and lawyers are being paid lots of money while the less mobile get carted about like sacks.  This is another problem with privatising services - when things go wrong, they can end up being disputed rather than solved.

This is why the airport operations need to be commercialised (or privatised). There would be a penalty clause in place for failing to provide services such as the ambulift. 

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22 minutes ago, 0bserver said:

This is why the airport operations need to be commercialised (or privatised). There would be a penalty clause in place for failing to provide services such as the ambulift. 

But they have already been privatised and this is the result.  And if you think that things should be run entirely commercially, then airports would either be imposing massive surcharges on mobility impaired people or telling them they shouldn't be using their services.

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1 minute ago, Roger Mexico said:

But they have already been privatised and this is the result.  And if you think that things should be run entirely commercially, then airports would either be imposing massive surcharges on mobility impaired people or telling them they shouldn't be using their services.

They haven't been commercialised/corporatised properly otherwise we wouldn't have this kind of situation. 

It may be worth making a complaint to the airline concerned (presumably Easyjet if it was an Airbus) as they will not want any accusations of discrimination. 

Airports cannot, and wouldn't dare, to say that to people requiring additional assistance. 

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4 minutes ago, 0bserver said:

They haven't been commercialised/corporatised properly otherwise we wouldn't have this kind of situation. 

It may be worth making a complaint to the airline concerned (presumably Easyjet if it was an Airbus) as they will not want any accusations of discrimination. 

Airports cannot, and wouldn't dare, to say that to people requiring additional assistance. 

The problem will lie with whichever public servant, office or Dept is supposed to be overseeing the private service provider and ensuring that taxpayers get VFM? It's not Spake perchance, is it?

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3 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

Quite possibly, it will depend on the terms of the contract - also who is responsible for the maintenance of it.  You'd think a professional operator like Menzies would prefer to use their own stuff and clearly they're not providing the service properly at the moment.

If there's really been no working system since the Summer, then you can't help suspecting there's some sort of contractual dispute going on and lawyers are being paid lots of money while the less mobile get carted about like sacks.  This is another problem with privatising services - when things go wrong, they can end up being disputed rather than solved.

It all boils down to management, previous management have been preoccupied with big sexy projects and allowed the mice to run past whilst managing buffaloes !

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13 minutes ago, asitis said:

It all boils down to management, previous management have been preoccupied with big sexy projects and allowed the mice to run past whilst managing buffaloes !

Well, that is not quite the complete, total, picture. When the queues magically appeared out of nowhere, Reynolds went into a Tynwald meeting and said she did not have a clue what was going on, but wanted £300,000 to fix the problem. I do not recall any politician saying anything against that - and that is the real problem.

It resulted in the best newspaper headline ("I have no idea") I have seen since "Venus flytrap ate my wife" in some low-class British newspaper.

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1 hour ago, 0bserver said:

They haven't been commercialised/corporatised properly otherwise we wouldn't have this kind of situation. 

It may be worth making a complaint to the airline concerned (presumably Easyjet if it was an Airbus) as they will not want any accusations of discrimination. 

Airports cannot, and wouldn't dare, to say that to people requiring additional assistance. 

It's quite clearly been explained that Menzies now provide these services to the airlines (who pay them).  You can't get more commercialised than that.  You can argue that the Airport should have continued to supply those services directly and it's their fault for giving up the control of them, but not that the current situation isn't commercialised. 

And if you believe that commercialisation means that things automatically go wonderfully I've just two words for you: Manx Gas.

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4 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

It's quite clearly been explained that Menzies now provide these services to the airlines (who pay them).  You can't get more commercialised than that.  You can argue that the Airport should have continued to supply those services directly and it's their fault for giving up the control of them, but not that the current situation isn't commercialised. 

And if you believe that commercialisation means that things automatically go wonderfully I've just two words for you: Manx Gas.

It's cack handed commercialisation. It's the DOI, everything is cack handed with them, they have a reverse Midas touch. 

The airport needs to sit outside of their remit. Everything of national important needs to be take out of their control. 

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6 minutes ago, 0bserver said:

It's cack handed commercialisation. It's the DOI, everything is cack handed with them, they have a reverse Midas touch. 

The airport needs to sit outside of their remit. Everything of national important needs to be take out of their control. 

I really am at a loss to understand what criteria those who recruit senior staff positions apply, as to who is suitable for what. The top two positions at the airport have been and are an utter disaster !

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31 minutes ago, 0bserver said:

It's cack handed commercialisation. It's the DOI, everything is cack handed with them, they have a reverse Midas touch. 

The airport needs to sit outside of their remit. Everything of national important needs to be take out of their control. 

I sympathise but I think you're making the classic mistake here.  The problem isn't structural but cultural.  Reorganising the DoI and other government departments (yet again) won't solve things.  In actual fact the remit of the DoI is very similar to a lot of similar Departments in other jurisdictions.  All reorganisation will do is cost a lot and leave the same people in charge and probably with a bigger pay packet.

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45 minutes ago, asitis said:

I really am at a loss to understand what criteria those who recruit senior staff positions apply, as to who is suitable for what. The top two positions at the airport have been and are an utter disaster !

Fixed term contracts are needed if they are going to continue down this road. Then after say 24 months if things are still a mess they get the boot. 

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22 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

I sympathise but I think you're making the classic mistake here.  The problem isn't structural but cultural.  Reorganising the DoI and other government departments (yet again) won't solve things.  In actual fact the remit of the DoI is very similar to a lot of similar Departments in other jurisdictions.  All reorganisation will do is cost a lot and leave the same people in charge and probably with a bigger pay packet.

That's why it needs running commercially, outside of government like (supposedly) the Steam Packet. 

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