Airport.

[Cinderella]

58 minutes ago, Amadeus said:

It seems to happen quite a lot and there's clearly a staffing issue. Last time I passed through it took an hour to get the bags. Others have told stories of similar experiences. 

Was told by taxi driver that this happens with Easyjet flights (esp evening one from Gatwick). The Airport only has one baggage crew on; plane pulls up and they remove bags; but, then instead of driving these to baggage hall, they have to first load up plane with outgoing bags. Hence 30-40 minute delay to arriving passengers. For a task that should take five minutes (and very frustrating when you can see the plane from the baggage hall). But Easyjet rules the roost. 

[Nellie]

1 hour ago, Max Power said:

I think you have to take things in context, how many delays do we suffer during a normal month? Yes it's unfortunate that the gaming execs had 25mins stolen from them, but is it a regular occurrence and a cause for concern in the grand scheme of things?

A quick check on Flightradar24 shows that the flight arrived at Gatwick a huge 3 minutes late, so a complete non-issue in the end.

[NoTailT]

2 hours ago, Nellie said:

A quick check on Flightradar24 shows that the flight arrived at Gatwick a huge 3 minutes late, so a complete non-issue in the end.

How dare you come here with such facts. Who do you think you are?

[Roger Mexico]

5 hours ago, asitis said:

[Cobb] is accountable to ensure Menzies provide a service no doubt agreed with the airport when they were awarded the contract. As sure as hell the service standards expected are better than being provided, unless of course Reynolds made a horlicks of the contract ! If they are not providing the service then hold them to the fire, how they provide that service and what they pay, is down to them. Too many sloping shoulders in all aspects of our public services are costing us the taxpayers millions !

Reynolds making a mess of something?  Surely not!

Actually the problems with outsourcing will go further than just airport management with the AG's Office having the biggest say[1] and Treasury and several parts of the Cabinet Office a lot of influence - as well as other parts of the DoI empire.  So responsibility will be diffuse (deliberately so) and the ability to set contractual terms uncertain.

But even if the contract has been drawn up to be watertight and all eventualities covered, enforcing it will be a different matter.  You will be dealing with multinational companies (Menzies is now owned by a company based in Kuwait) who at best will have long decision-making chains and at worst lots of people experienced in getting out of contractual terms, delaying action and imposing additional charges.  And in the end they know they can get away with it because the Airport will rather have a poor service than none at all.

The only way to control staff is to employ them directly.  Of course outsourcing is attractive to certain sorts of management because of that  - it's always someone else's fault, just as MHKs set up Manx Care so they didn't have responsibility for something that mattered to their constituents.

You can't blame Cobb for any of this (he's only been in post six months for starters) and anyone choosing to do so is just letting all those actually responsible get away with it and the system that led to this mess to continue.

 

[1]  This isn't a new problem.  When they built Ramsey Pier in the 1880s, it took far longer than expected as no completion date or penalties had been put in the contract.  So the builders only worked when it was most convenient and least expensive.  Mind you I doubt the AG's Office had 80-odd people in it at the time.

[WTF]

13 hours ago, asitis said:

Seems to me then we are paying an awful lot of money for some useless tosser to sit around in a non job !

that hasn't narrowed it down much.

[0bserver]

14 hours ago, Amadeus said:

It seems to happen quite a lot and there's clearly a staffing issue. Last time I passed through it took an hour to get the bags. Others have told stories of similar experiences. 

They should ramp up airfares (no pun intended).  

Pay a decent wage for the unsociable hours of airport work. It's a user pays principle so would be fair.

 

Or how about redeploying the DBC refuse workers who are no longer needed since the cut in collections?

Edited February 7, 2023 by 0bserver

[Banker]

1 hour ago, 0bserver said:

They should ramp up airfares (no pun intended).  

Pay a decent wage for the unsociable hours of airport work. It's a user pays principle so would be fair.

 

Or how about redeploying the DBC refuse workers who are no longer needed since the cut in collections?

As has been pointed out many times the staff are employed by Menzies so wages etc nothing to do with government, airport directors etc

[0bserver]

16 minutes ago, Banker said:

As has been pointed out many times the staff are employed by Menzies so wages etc nothing to do with government, airport directors etc

I didn't mention the government. 

How do you think Menzies make their money? They charge the airline for their services. So up that charge to the airlines and pay the staff more. 

The flip side is the airlines could just say no thanks and quit IOM altogether.

[NoTailT]

30 minutes ago, 0bserver said:

I didn't mention the government. 

How do you think Menzies make their money? They charge the airline for their services. So up that charge to the airlines and pay the staff more. 

The flip side is the airlines could just say no thanks and quit IOM altogether.

Menzies here has a station manager but commercially is managed out of Manchester.

I've heard that airlines are charged nearly double here for handling than they'd expect to pay in the UK.

The net result is usually the airport ends up having go do silly deals to balance it out - when it suits them anyway - which impacts airport revenues.

I'm sure @Chris Thomascan provide some insight.

[The Bastard]

16 hours ago, Amadeus said:

It seems to happen quite a lot and there's clearly a staffing issue. Last time I passed through it took an hour to get the bags. Others have told stories of similar experiences. 

Unfortunately the collections of baggage are now on a less regular basis. Perhaps you should consider reducing the volume of your luggage contents through recycling, and using your hand luggage, which in turn will lead to lower consumption of fuel and huge benefits for the environment.

[TheTeapot]

52 minutes ago, 0bserver said:

 

How do you think Menzies make their money? They charge the airline for their services. So up that charge to the airlines and pay the staff more. 

This is not how capitalism works.

[Banker]

21 minutes ago, NoTailT said:

Menzies here has a station manager but commercially is managed out of Manchester.

I've heard that airlines are charged nearly double here for handling than they'd expect to pay in the UK.

The net result is usually the airport ends up having go do silly deals to balance it out - when it suits them anyway - which impacts airport revenues.

I'm sure @Chris Thomascan provide some insight.

More unsubstantiated rumours or do you have any evidence to support them? If so it would be a first!!

[NoTailT]

19 minutes ago, Banker said:

More unsubstantiated rumours or do you have any evidence to support them? If so it would be a first!!

Knowledge and pub talk.

My rumours usually have more basis than your drivel!

[0bserver]

11 hours ago, The Bastard said:

Unfortunately the collections of baggage are now on a less regular basis. Perhaps you should consider reducing the volume of your luggage contents through recycling, and using your hand luggage, which in turn will lead to lower consumption of fuel and huge benefits for the environment.

It's still the same amount of baggage. Just now you have to take more in your hand luggage.

[Roger Mexico]

The main problem that the Airport has is a simple one that isn't really being discussed.  It's that there just aren't enough passengers, with figures still not back to anything like pre-Covid levels.  The Airport's route figures for 2022 were published last month and they are only shown against those for 2021, which of course indicates an impressive rise.  But compare them to the figures for 2019, which have disappeared from the Government site, but the CAA figures are available for domestic flights (p 16) and separately for non-UK (mainly Dublin) and it's a different picture:

IOM Airport Pax 2019 v 2022
Route	Pax 2019	Pax 2022	Change
BFS	23,970	22,012	-8%
BHX	43,407	22,371	-48%
BRS	28,600	30,794	8%
DUB	42,116	25,287	-40%
EDI	7,852	9,723	24%
LGW	176,142	149,887	-15%
GLA	191	0	-100%
LHR	18,016	20,365	13%
LPL	254,250	154,297	-39%
LCY	56,032	17,038	-70%
LTN	25,006	0	-100%
MAN	173,250	96,173	-44%
Non-Schd	5,844	14,543	149%
Total	854,676	562,490	-34%

Overall numbers are down by about a third.  There will still have been a bit of Covid hangover (Dublin for example didn't restart till mid-March) but even looking at the figures for November, the Airport figures are only about 69% of the CAA ones for November 2019.

Where the drops are is interesting.  There is clearly, as expected, a sharp decline in business traffic, shown particularly with LCY (LHR holds steady on a small base, though a lot of that is also long-haul holidays) and possibly BHX and MAN as well..  Business traffic has been in decline for decades of course, but Covid has clearly had a drastic and probably irreversible effect.

'Marginal' destinations (BFS, EDI/GLA, BRS) have gone back to more or less pre-Covid levels, though they make up less of the market - DUB might join them with a full year's service. The South (apart from business) seems not quite as badly hit as the North, though you need to take into account the absence of LTN.  Competition on MAN doesn't seem to have helped it - the drop is even more than LPL.