2bees Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 I’m am sooo stressed, do I chance the plane (to gatwick, where I have a hire car booked) or should I sack it off and get the boat and get a car from Heysham - this is the most terrible dilemma. It’s my granddaughter’s first birthday, my besties 50th and we’re all (6 of us) supposed to be going to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Saturday. I want to cry and cry and cry. If we get the boat I’ll have to drive to London which will take ages so I’ll be tired at the play, it’s totally not fair and I’m sooo sooo sooo vexed, honestly, this was supposed to be a lovely family weekend and now it’s just a big messy stress venting is not helping. The airport are so helpful. Not! “It depends on the weather” no ducks given. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ringy Rose Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 (edited) 4 minutes ago, 2bees said: The airport are so helpful. Not! “It depends on the weather” no ducks given. What else do you want them to say? It does depend on the weather: more fog like tonight and it might not run if the wind is in the wrong direction, but a lovely sunny still day and it probably will run. The weather forecast isn't great, though, so if you really do need to be there the boat is more likely to go (so long as its not really foggy). Edited March 16, 2023 by Ringy Rose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Banker Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 Chris Thomas on food issues https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/issues-experienced-at-airport-this-morning-far-from-ideal/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebushy Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 Unless I misheard him, the solution to a lack of food delivery seems to be to redevelop the airport! Manx Radio understands that people waiting at the airport had issues accessing food whilst private providers in the departure lounge waited for deliveries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoTailT Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 I've heard Mr Thomas use this 'far from ideal' line an awful lot. Didn't he promise us an 'exciting' announcement about a remodel of departures? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Non-Believer Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 The "lack of food" is not the primary issue surely, just a useful deflector. The primary issue is that the ILS(?) equipment is not functioning, leading to planes being unable to land, discharge their passengers and load up with the other good souls wanting to go about their business. Who is responsible for this and how did the situation arise? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperHans Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 (edited) 11 minutes ago, NoTailT said: I've heard Mr Thomas use this 'far from ideal' line an awful lot. Didn't he promise us an 'exciting' announcement about a remodel of departures? Mr Thomas sadly has the capacity to not suspect what he’s been told by civil servants. Likely because he was an honest one when he did the job. Which, when you sit over a department of abject compulsive liars, is always going to present him with a bit of a challenge. Edited March 16, 2023 by SuperHans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmanxpilot Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Non-Believer said: The "lack of food" is not the primary issue surely, just a useful deflector. The primary issue is that the ILS(?) equipment is not functioning, leading to planes being unable to land, discharge their passengers and load up with the other good souls wanting to go about their business. Who is responsible for this and how did the situation arise? Exactly what I was going to say. The priorities are all wrong. The most important single thing they should concentrate on is getting the airport up to the spec where planes can land in conditions up to the technical capability of the aircraft and pilots. The airport’s approach minima should never be the limiting factor. Everything else is secondary to that. Edited March 16, 2023 by madmanxpilot 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeCurious Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 4 minutes ago, madmanxpilot said: Exactly what I was going to say. The priorities are all wrong. The most important single thing they should concentrate on is getting the airport up to the spec where planes can land in conditions up to the technical capability of the aircraft and pilots. The airport facilities should never be the limiting factor. Everything else is secondary to that. Not trying to deflect from all the problems but how come some pilots/airlines can manage it and others not? Is it down to conditions as they try or is it not having the right crew/instruments for the worst case? I only ask because I would have thought the ILS system being out of action would have to be on a 'notice board' and presumably with some advance warning. Surely that is the type of thing the CAA would insist on? And things like baggage handling issues can only add to further disruption to flights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowman Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 7 minutes ago, CallMeCurious said: Not trying to deflect from all the problems but how come some pilots/airlines can manage it and others not? Is it down to conditions as they try or is it not having the right crew/instruments for the worst case? I only ask because I would have thought the ILS system being out of action would have to be on a 'notice board' and presumably with some advance warning. Surely that is the type of thing the CAA would insist on? And things like baggage handling issues can only add to further disruption to flights. The notice board you speak of is called. NOTAM and it's stated within. Different planes have different decision heights. Furthermore loganair can land on one runway whilst easyJet cannot. I'll let others go into more detail Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wright Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 4 minutes ago, CallMeCurious said: Not trying to deflect from all the problems but how come some pilots/airlines can manage it and others not? Is it down to conditions as they try or is it not having the right crew/instruments for the worst case? I only ask because I would have thought the ILS system being out of action would have to be on a 'notice board' and presumably with some advance warning. Surely that is the type of thing the CAA would insist on? And things like baggage handling issues can only add to further disruption to flights. The ILS is on a NOTAM. The weather, visibility, conditions, change by the minute. Visual landing permitted conditions vary by airline and plane. And when it’s wet, and the runway has a lower coefficient of friction ( affecting braking distance ). The parameters for an EZY airbus will be very different to a Logan ATR. Weight, speed at touchdown, etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2bees Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 @Ringy Rose I would like to know if the problem with the lights is likely to be fixed or not so I can make other plans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0bserver Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 2 hours ago, asitis said: It does not need to be run at arms length, it needs to be run efficiently by someone who wants to run an airport. Like this but an airport director instead of a pilot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercenary Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 Having skimmed through the arms length report: - comparison is made of aero & non-revenue makeup to similar benchmarked airports, which is a sensible approach - follow up analysis is unfortunately limited. There is no in depth discussion over potential non aero revenue streams and their IoM context. E.g. many UK airports make approximately half their revenue from car parks, and another substantial chunk from food & beverage. This is mentioned lightly - but what is the anticipated potential revenue from each? - There is probably scope to increase far parking revenue, but moreso from compliance than actual charges (which seem in keeping with elsewhere). Surely the horse has bolted on this one now with RingGo. Also the island airports (e.g. Guernsey) seem more comparable in this regard where the revenue is similar rather than e.g. Bournemouth which could have a 70 mile catchment not serviced by buses/taxis. - Food & beverage. Again yes this could be better but assuming they have a reasonable commercial rent on the existing establishments it is hard to imagine this moving the needle. Again being a small catchment people spend less time in the airport. Speeding up the serving of coffees would help but it's not clear you need a new chief commercial officer and arms length arrangement to make this happen - beyond this you have ancillary areas such as car hire, other retail and that's about it (unless you consider charging for pickup/dropoff) There is scope for revenue improvement but enough to really move the needle? Enough to even cover a new officer at £80k total? Have I missed areas? And other than revenue generation is the arms length setup really helping anything? Unless it's just any arrangement to get it outside of the behemoth that is DoI. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmanxpilot Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 (edited) 58 minutes ago, CallMeCurious said: Not trying to deflect from all the problems but how come some pilots/airlines can manage it and others not? Is it down to conditions as they try or is it not having the right crew/instruments for the worst case? I only ask because I would have thought the ILS system being out of action would have to be on a 'notice board' and presumably with some advance warning. Surely that is the type of thing the CAA would insist on? And things like baggage handling issues can only add to further disruption to flights. Pretty much like what the others have said. Approach minima tend to be the same irrespective of aircraft type. One exception is circling minima. These minima are higher for aircraft with a faster final approach speed, not because the actual type. This because the faster you are flying the larger the radius your turns will be with the potential that this will bring you closer to obstacles. Regarding baggage handling issues, that is a manpower problem primarily. But if planes suddenly all arrive at the same time because the weather has improved sufficiently to allow them to land, then the resources of the handling agent will be obviously be stretched. Having an airfield that can offer pilots the ability to land in low visibility would mitigate against this circumstance. Edited March 16, 2023 by madmanxpilot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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