Airport.

[The Phantom]

Apparently there isn't even any food in departures for the people that have been waiting for 3+ hours. 

We should probably stop being surprised by the fact anything to do with Govt doesn't work anymore and costs 10x what it should. 

[The Voice of Reason]

What happened to that lady ( a photographer/ influencer etc) who was going to shake things up IIRC ?
 

If I recall she previously made some important announcement some months ago. ( so important that I can’t actually remember what it was)

[asitis]

2 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

What happened to that lady ( a photographer/ influencer etc) who was going to shake things up IIRC ?
 

If I recall she previously made some important announcement some months ago. ( so important that I can’t actually remember what it was)

I remember that, mainly because I couldn't understand it ! I guess it contained all the right modern management words.

[The Phantom]

11 minutes ago, asitis said:

I remember that, mainly because I couldn't understand it ! I guess it contained all the right modern management words.

Blue sky thinking on a day with no visibility?

[Banker]

37 minutes ago, snowman said:

Loganair arrival from Heathrow is holding 

Landed ok

[Andy Onchan]

55 minutes ago, Nellie said:

Back in 2019, Reynolds probably told Spake to do it. He decided that it wasn't the sort of thing a poor man's Alan Carr should be doing, so he binned the request. And the rest is history.

To coin a favourite word from the Poor Man's Answer to Alan Carr.... "пожалуйста"! 🤣

[Andy Onchan]

29 minutes ago, asitis said:

I remember that, mainly because I couldn't understand it ! I guess it contained all the right modern management words.

The world's full of twunks like that in so-called business these days.

[Moghrey Mie]

1 hour ago, Cypman said:

I have just seen on the Airport Website that they started planning for the ILS replacement in 2019.  At the time, did management foresee the possible implications and start communicating with NATS to produce GPS procedures, which would have allowed considerably reduced approach minima ? I don’t know if anything had been done, it might be that the IOM CAA relationship with the UK authorities put us at the back of the queue, as UK airports could have been getting priority. Anyway, it’s a pretty frustrating situation currently.

 

Certainly at present, decision making outside the day to day business as usual is not delegated to one person and has several layers. For example some financial decisions can go from the Airport Director, to Finance Advisory Service, to the Departmental Chief Officer, 13 | P a g e Minister for Infrastructure, to Treasury, and finally Council of Ministers. Occasionally the Department for Enterprise may also have an involvement in an advisory capacity. Should issues occur at any stage, the process re-starts, and the amendments go back through the same approval chain. It can therefore take weeks for a contract or agreement to be concluded.

Maybe this is something to do with things not happening. Too many cooks.

[Two-lane]

I do not think that photos of road signs covered in green slime are relevant - that's just the Manx and English way. (And the photos were uploaded by someone who presumably knows the phrase "insel affen"!)

The rusty wheels on baggage trolleys is a trivial, easily fixed, problem. No food? Nowhere to sit down on the rare occasion there is more than one flight departing? Get real - as young people say. Not enough scheduled flights to Budleigh Salterton? Nah.

The only problem is the poor weather capability of the airport and consequent poor communication. And the poor communication could be fixed in short order if the willingness and competence is there.

So the structure can be changed to be an arm's length organisation, which will look at the profitability aspects of spending millions on upgrading the ILS/whatever - and it will not happen. There is no financial justification. £50 for driving past the entrance is more likely to happen.

The recently issued document refers to other airports as "competitors". That is nonsense. However the document does clearly show that board would report to the Minister, but that is irrelevant unless the Minister has both the power and the willingness to fire people. Not going to happen.

There is one good thing about Ronaldsway. After the gate opens and boarding cards checked, people then go down to the lower level and sit in a lounge (with toilets). At Manchester, Liverpool and Gatwick you are sent to stand for hours in a freezing cold draughty tunnel until being allowed onto the plane. And when you are going on holiday somewhere hot, are travelling light, and have only a pair of shorts and an ancient Che Guevara T-shirt (now a bit tight round the waist) this gets to be pretty uncomfortable.

 

[madmanxpilot]

13 minutes ago, Moghrey Mie said:

 

Maybe this is something to do with things not happening. Too many cooks.

Cooks? I think you missed out the c and put in a second o.

[Ringy Rose]

2 hours ago, Nellie said:

Loganair actually operate one of the most diverse and non-standard fleets in Europe, with no fewer than NINE different aircraft types. That is more than British Airways, KLM or Iberia! 

Their website has seven, but of these the Saab 340 is going and The Twin Otter and the Islander are for niche routes. So really it's an ATR or an Embraer, the ATR42/ATR72 and the Embraer 135/145 really are pretty much the same.

Loganair's issue is that if one goes tech there isn't a spare one.

2 hours ago, Nellie said:

And when there is a technical problem, the stand-in aircraft are far away. When Emerald are fully up and running, they will have aircraft bases in Dublin, Manchester and Belfast, only around 30 minutes flying time away

True, but it depends how they use their fleet, and Aberdeen or Teesside isn't that much further away. The real issue I'd Loganair don't have spares so if any go tech it's a case of waiting, Emerald may have a bit more spare capacity or the ability to juggle stuff around but airlines don't have spare aircraft anymore.

[Andy Onchan]

I don't think there's much money in running airports these days, so we would certainly expect existing charges to increase and even those that don't exist at the moment to be introduced. 

[madmanxpilot]

1 hour ago, Nellie said:

Back in 2019, Reynolds probably told Spake to do it. He decided that it wasn't the sort of thing a poor man's Alan Carr should be doing, so he binned the request. And the rest is history.

Spake had in his mind that rather than replace the aging  ILS antennae and transmitters, a procedure called GBAS (ground based augmented system) was the way forward. He wanted to bin the ILS and replace it with RNAV procedures which were augmented by a ground based unit which basically increased the reliability and accuracy of the procedures to equal that of the current ILS system.

He was really keen to press on with this it until somebody pointed out to him that no airlines in the UK used the system, none of their planes were equipped to do it and none of their pilots would therefore be trained to do it. 

That sort of highlights a problem that still exists. The management appear to have have no idea what pilots can and can’t work with.

[Banker]

1 hour ago, Two-lane said:

". That is nonsense. However the document does clearly show that board would report to the Minister, but that is irrelevant unless the Minister has both the power and the willingness to fire people. Not going to happen.

It would be same as steam packet, the CEO & board have power to hire & fire, set routes, prices etc without political interference , the treasury minister is the shareholders so could sack the board & direct the board ultimately,

[asitis]

1 hour ago, Andy Onchan said:

I don't think there's much money in running airports these days, so we would certainly expect existing charges to increase and even those that don't exist at the moment to be introduced. 

The airport will always need subvention it does not have the passenger numbers and never will have to make profit. It does not need to be run at arms length, it needs to be run efficiently by someone who wants to run an airport. We have always recruited people whose sole desire is to develop and not run things. Development is its own driver i.e. develop when needed, but at the moment I would guess the airport is running at 10% of its capability. My guess is this latest raft of clueless ideas will end up costing more and improving nothing !