Airport.

[cissolt]

44 minutes ago, Omobono said:

these people are bringing money into the Island and without the aircraft registry it would be difficult  for corporate service providers   to supply a package  of  aircraft procurement  and management to clients  same with the Yachts and ships , and attract revenue and VAT    don't confuse this function   with the shit show that is the airport  and the layers of  surplus management that is the DOI , you could loose  25 managers tomorrow from the DOI empire  and it wouldn't even be noticed , 

want to save money in Government then do what every other business does, start looking  at the wage bill  and deciding what is essential and who   can go to support the shortage of labour in the private sector , and why have we have almost 500 new government employees in the last 4 years , ? 

Questions need to be asked , before the government monster bankrupts us all 

Good point! I was always under the impression the the gov pension scheme was a Ponzi and relied on a supply of fresh victims.  Like those bitcoins

 

[manxchester]

1 hour ago, Ativa said:

Our airport is massively missing a truck on retail.

If I have a flight at 20:00 o will head to the Whitestone for food and drink and then head to ronaldsway at the last minute, because I can’t even get a proper meal there.

On the early morning flights I can’t even get a proper breakfast.

At other airports I rock up a few hours early and spend on food and drink.  They are missing out.

Why would you not just eat at home? I’ve never got to an airport a few hours early to spend on food here or across.

[finlo]

3 minutes ago, manxchester said:

Why would you not just eat at home? I’ve never got to an airport a few hours early to spend on food here or across.

For a powerfully built company director it's a display of success.

[WTF]

1 hour ago, Ativa said:

Our airport is massively missing a truck on retail.

 

no ,  it isn't an airport where people are stuck with time to kill waiting for connecting flights, nobody is landing at ronaldsway and then wondering what to have for lunch at the airport and what shops to get a hew bag or jacket from while they wait for their next flight.  the cafe as it is ( when open ) should be sufficient  , and the newsagents bit is the get your mints and mag for the flight shop, nothing else is needed , it just isn't an international transport hub type airport. 

[offshoremanxman]

9 minutes ago, manxchester said:

Why would you not just eat at home? I’ve never got to an airport a few hours early to spend on food here or across.

The poster is just a wind up merchant. Who in the IOM tums up at the airport 2 hours early to have a full meal when they can simply have a meal at home before they drive the half hour to the airport? It’s just one more load of absolute bollocks just to get a rise out of people. The Whitestone is always empty anyhow and the food is awful if that’s the made up comparison. 

[Utah 01]

6 minutes ago, finlo said:

For a powerfully built company director it's a display of success.

........and an expense account.

[Ringy Rose]

4 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

But it has all the marks of Cannan and Treasury over it as the only solution they recognise is to give money and jobs to their mates

Now that I’d agree with. Cannan’s just a pound shop Tory, always has been, and so money will only be forthcoming if there’s something in it for his associates.

Speaking of, we’ve not had a report from Beamans for a while…

[Ringy Rose]

2 hours ago, Two-lane said:

God knows why Chris Thomas et al are so concerned with airport retail, rather than airport operation. My impression of a busy Liverpool departures area was not good. Plenty of people. 

Liverpool is infinitely better than the squalid hell-hole that is Manchester Terminal 3. But yes. There’s nowhere to sit in Liverpool unless you’re in a bar or the Starbucks. Despite all that space. It’s almost as though Peel Holdings have deliberately designed it like that to make everyone buy something.

That’ll be the airport “retail experience”, bars and Costa by the big windows overlooking the apron and if you’re not buying you can stand in a dingy corridor.

[Ativa]

1 hour ago, manxchester said:

Why would you not just eat at home? I’ve never got to an airport a few hours early to spend on food here or across.

It’s nice to chill at the airport, have some food and a few beers.

I don’t like stressing through security. Looking at my watch.  I like to take my time.

If other people weren’t the same the. Every other airport wouldn’t have decent bars and restaurants 

[Ativa]

1 hour ago, offshoremanxman said:

The poster is just a wind up merchant. Who in the IOM tums up at the airport 2 hours early to have a full meal when they can simply have a meal at home before they drive the half hour to the airport? It’s just one more load of absolute bollocks just to get a rise out of people. The Whitestone is always empty anyhow and the food is awful if that’s the made up comparison. 

The Whitestone was busy on Friday  night and although I don’t have food plenty of others did and were speaking highly of it.

Two years ago it was pants.  Now it’s not.  Same as The British.  No spare tables tonight and loads of food going out.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Ativa

[Non-Believer]

It's little more than a provincial airfield that needs to get the basics right before it starts thinking about the retail finery.

Those basics are getting aircraft in and out efficiently without huge delays caused by known and usually forecastable weather conditions, as other similar airports seem to be able to do.

It doesn't need to be a Heathrow, Gatwick or CDG shopping mall, people aren't there long enough with hours and money to burn between international connections.

[Roger Mexico]

8 hours ago, Two-lane said:

What are Treasury's plans for the airport?

If they are looking at things at such a very low level, why did they approve the funding for Ramsey's new pedestrian crossing to nowhere?

The trollies were an additional item requested during the financial year, so they would have been extra to the budget and required separate authorisation.  Obviously if Thomas and Cobb had just gone out and bought them without asking, the Treasury would probably have let it go through with barely a mutter, even if the trollies cost £10,000 each and had square wheels.  But do things in the proper way and you'll get knocked back.

Funding for the random Ramsey crossing presumably came out of an existing budget, so wouldn't have required Treasury approval, though in practice they just spend on whatever takes their fancy and whatever easy-to-do schemes the contractors need to fill their time and pockets.

[Roger Mexico]

7 hours ago, Roxanne said:

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Rob Callister wasn't sacked because he questioned what he was told. He's never done so throughout his entire political career and he didn't start when he got to Health either [...]

That's what makes the whole affair so odd.  Callister's normally pathetically eager to do whatever he's told and keen to fit in with the big boys.  It shows how toxic the DHSC environment is that they couldn't even cope with the political equivalent of a Labrador puppy.  Though Cannan clearly didn't want to appoint him and the civil servants must have realised that anything they said about him would be believed.

[asitis]

There are a number of realities in respect of the airport which need presenting to the public in a more palatable form. Firstly, there will be days, mainly due to the airports geographical position on the island, where flights are not going to get in no matter what improvements we carry out to the precision approach systems. However improvements will restrict the number of those days to, hopefully, something more palatable. We seem to have a management hierarchy which is a strange composition of people, many of who do not have much, if any, relevant experience of the fields which they are heading up.

There is no one I can see who is an aviation expert, in terms of operational matters concerning the flying of aircraft, we have rafts of people in roles where rules and regulations abound and where empire building is the norm.

It seems to me we needed a manager role to oversee the terminal, someone customer focused whose job it is to maximise what we have, and make it the most pleasant experience they can, and who spends their days problem solving at the building.

We then needed an aviation expert to drive a way forward for improvements to the reliability of services, to get treasury onboard with what is required, and to forge links with airlines and their operational management.

Those two roles properly staffed, would have brought a sensible way forward in times when the island does not have the money to embrace masterplans and continue to develop a half assed Heathrow on Sea.

Any private company running the airport would firstly treat its infection with the CS, and embrace roles like the above, instead we have a bureaucratic behemoth, beloved by government whose aim is to have meetings and hand wring !

Edited May 1, 2023 by asitis

[madmanxpilot]

1 hour ago, asitis said:

There are a number of realities in respect of the airport which need presenting to the public in a more palatable form. Firstly, there will be days, mainly due to the airports geographical position on the island, where flights are not going to get in no matter what improvements we carry out to the precision approach systems. However improvements will restrict the number of those days to, hopefully, something more palatable. We seem to have a management hierarchy which is a strange composition of people, many of who do not have much, if any, relevant experience of the fields which they are heading up.

There is no one I can see who is an aviation expert, in terms of operational matters concerning the flying of aircraft, we have rafts of people in roles where rules and regulations abound and where empire building is the norm.

It seems to me we needed a manager role to oversee the terminal, someone customer focused whose job it is to maximise what we have, and make it the most pleasant experience they can, and who spends their days problem solving at the building.

We then needed an aviation expert to drive a way forward for improvements to the reliability of services, to get treasury onboard with what is required, and to forge links with airlines and their operational management.

Those two roles properly staffed, would have brought a sensible way forward in times when the island does not have the money to embrace masterplans and continue to develop a half assed Heathrow on Sea.

Any private company running the airport would firstly treat its infection with the CS, and embrace roles like the above, instead we have a bureaucratic behemoth, beloved by government whose aim is to have meetings and hand wring !

Well said. However, whilst what you describe is an ideal situation, we don’t actually need the Airport Management to understand fully the complexities of low visibility approach aids and the best way to move forward in that regard. We just need them to accept that they don’t know everything about the subject, it is after all fairly complex, and that they should consult with those that do so that improvements can be made that will make a real difference rather than see precious resources continually wasted on pointless vanity projects.

 

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by madmanxpilot