Airport.

[Stu Peters]

Commercial aviation is an eye-wateringly expensive industry to be in, and with fares constantly being forced down the operators have to sweat their assets. Aircraft on the ground don’t make any money, hence finding ‘filler’ routes. But any glitch in the matrix has often horrendous consequences, as per JW’s post above.

One answer is for government to offer subsidies, which none of us find an acceptable solution. Governments have little influence on airlines.

As to the ‘why don’t they just fit ANPR in the carpark’, the cost of the system is considerable, and the hated app (I’m old so I don’t like it either) is vastly cheaper. I think they should have mothballed the old system properly with a liberal coat of WD40 at the start of Covid, but WTF do I know?

[manxman1980]

1 minute ago, Stu Peters said:

Aircraft on the ground don’t make any money

In most cases they lose money as they have to pay fees whilst sat at the airports.

[John Wright]

2 minutes ago, Ringy Rose said:

No, the real problem *is* EasyJet and their failure to fly planes to schedule. The airport has a soft curfew of 9.30pm and a hard curfew of 11pm. 11pm curfews are not uncommon- Berlin Brandenberg is the same. 

It’s a recurring issue with that late Gatwick rotation, it’s not an unexpected one-off, it happens all the time.

We shall have to agree to differ

[IOM]

1 hour ago, swoopy2110 said:

There was talk by Cobb the other day that the airport hours need to be reviewed at part of the grand plan.

Easyjet aren't going to suit their schedule around the needs of the Isle of Man. So maybe the Isle of Man need to review what they can do to suit the airlines, and staff things accordingly. The overnight delays could be avoided if we could open later. Delays are going to happen, their planes are going to get delayed in Europe during the day. If we could open later (without talking silly times!) Then they'd get the plane here and out again.

Take a look at the opening hours for Jersey and Guernsey airport . The Isle of Man is no outlier why do we want to have additional costs for opening later for probably one flight ? 

[newaccount]

[Ringy Rose]

12 minutes ago, John Wright said:

We shall have to agree to differ

I certainly agree with you that having better ATC staffing would make things easier for all concerned, things are too tight as they stand.

But the primary issue is EasyJet’s continual inability to run that late Gatwick flight to schedule. It’s not a new thing, it’s been like this certainly since they started up again after Covid. They routinely have to have the airport extended past 9.30pm, normally it’s ok but occasionally the airport can’t comply or the delay is such that it would take them past 11pm anyway.

Edited June 2, 2023 by Ringy Rose

[Banker]

This evening’s Gatwick cancelled although they ran 3 others today 

[John Wright]

1 minute ago, Ringy Rose said:

I certainly agree with you that having better ATC staffing would make things easier for all concerned, things are too tight as they stand.

But the primary issue is EasyJet’s continual inability to run that late Gatwick flight to schedule. It’s not a new thing, it’s been like this certainly since they started up again after Covid. They routinely have to have the airport extended past 9.30pm, normally it’s ok but occasionally the airport can’t comply or- more commonly- the delay is such that it would take them past 11pm anyway.

It was happening regularly before Covid. I understand your view point, and it does seem worse in summer when they are working their assets hard and EU wide ATC is under stress, and delays creep in. But they’re sweating their assets and fitting in a 2h40m-3h rotation where they can to get 16+ hours a day use of a plane. 

Things would be a lot better if we had a full complement of ATCO, more resilience.

[Ringy Rose]

4 minutes ago, IOM said:

The Isle of Man is no outlier why do we want to have additional costs for opening later for probably one flight ? 

Assuming we can even get ATC staff. There are shortages across the UK. Manchester’s recently cut the period it has both runways in operation because they don’t have the cover.

[John Wright]

9 minutes ago, IOM said:

Take a look at the opening hours for Jersey and Guernsey airport . The Isle of Man is no outlier why do we want to have additional costs for opening later for probably one flight ? 

The airline should pay. Not sure if the price is properly calculated. But 180 at an average £150 expenses is a lot of wiggle room.

[cheesypeas]

2 hours ago, Nellie said:

Tonight's Gatwick already showing a two hour delay which means it'll probably be cancelled for the second evening in a row. Dozens of people, some of whom may have travelled thousands of miles and booked months ago, are going to see their TT trip screwed up. 

@Chris Thomas  when are we going to see/hear some proper reaction from the Airport management, or political representatives, to at least say, unequivocally, that this level of service is unacceptable.

We all know that you're all scared of upsetting easyJet, but there comes a point where you need to let to the public see that you finally trying to do something to sort this consistently unreliable service out. 

I know that, on the radio the other day, Cobb said he hoped the flight would eventually night-stop here but that's 18 months away. We need to see/hear some real action NOW! 

Tonight’s LGW wasn’t cancelled 

[Happier diner]

1 minute ago, cheesypeas said:

Tonight’s LGW wasn’t cancelled 

The last one was wasn't it?

[IOM]

4 minutes ago, cheesypeas said:

Tonight’s LGW wasn’t cancelled 

Suggest you check your facts EZY843 cancelled. It is an additional flight assumably for TT . 

[Nellie]

4 minutes ago, cheesypeas said:

Tonight’s LGW wasn’t cancelled 

Yes it was. The regular rotation EZY843/4 was most definitely cancelled. There was an additional rotation for TT traffic EZY895/6 which did operate about an hour late, but it was too early to take any passnegers that were displaced by the cancellation.

[Nellie]

2 hours ago, John Wright said:

 

Multiply that by 180 passengers.

Of course, it's up to 360 pax on the combined inbound/outbound flights, and I see that tonight they aren't blaming it on ATC delays here, or anywhere else, and are accepting EU261 claims, so the costs easily be north of £100k, which must be quite a few days (weeks??) profit on the route. 

ETA - EZY have now changed their story, and are blaming 'operating hours' which is an 'exceptional circumstance' which is clearly untrue, as they know perfectly well what the opening hours are months in advance! Very difficult for a claiming passenger to prove what the real reason really was. 

 

Edited June 2, 2023 by Nellie