Airport.

[IOM]

44 minutes ago, swoopy2110 said:

Gatwick cancelled tonight. Shortage of ATCs at Gatwick blamed.

Loads of EZY flights cancelled from Gatwick cancelled later today so not just here.

It’s absolutely pathetic it’s beyond me how anyone can realistically think EasyJet is the right airline for the island . It’s fine as a limited service cheap alternative but not as the main carrier . More reliable well timed frequent services to key markets are what we should have . 

[madmanxpilot]

12 minutes ago, Banker said:

I’m hoping to fly Wednesday but going via Liverpool, hopefully more chance than Gatwick!

Good luck. I would not be surprised if there is a bit of disruption on Wednesday evening - the forecast is >40Kts straight across.

[Banker]

4 minutes ago, madmanxpilot said:

Good luck. I would not be surprised if there is a bit of disruption on Wednesday evening - the forecast is >40Kts straight across.

Going in morning 😀

[Banker]

8 minutes ago, IOM said:

It’s absolutely pathetic it’s beyond me how anyone can realistically think EasyJet is the right airline for the island . It’s fine as a limited service cheap alternative but not as the main carrier . More reliable well timed frequent services to key markets are what we should have . 

What’s Gatwick ATC issues got to do with EasyJet?

[madmanxpilot]

14 minutes ago, Banker said:

What’s Gatwick ATC issues got to do with EasyJet?

There never were ATC issues at LGW the other night. Everyone else managed just fine. 
 

Edited to say that again, tonight, it only seems to be EZY who are affected - 30+ flights scrubbed, whilst the departures board shows only a couple of other cancellations for BA. Maybe other flights will been scrubbed later, but until they do, I remain suspicious.

Edited September 25, 2023 by madmanxpilot

[Declan]

55 minutes ago, english zloty said:

Gatwick cancelled again 😟 makes my trip to Bristol seem like a sensible idea 

sorry for folk who may get stranded a second night 

Try and get there early. There were long queues at security when I went for that flight a few weeks ago. 

[IOM]

13 minutes ago, Banker said:

What’s Gatwick ATC issues got to do with EasyJet?

Its the ongoing problem I am really referring to . Saturday night not enough fuel , last night cancelled tonight cancelled . Agreed that ATC at Gatwick is nothing to do with EasyJet but do you really think other markers and routes are missing flights for three days in a row ? It’s time people stopped and thought a little more about it rather than continually giving them a pass ! 

[Banker]

28 minutes ago, madmanxpilot said:

There never were ATC issues at LGW the other night. Everyone else managed just fine. 
 

Edited to say that again, tonight, it only seems to be EZY who are affected - 30+ flights scrubbed, whilst the departures board shows only a couple of other cancellations for BA. Maybe other flights will been scrubbed later, but until they do, I remain suspicious.

Possibly bit of both as someone just posted on Facebook that after Gatwick flight cancelled for ATC issues at Gatwick it then flew to Ibiza an hour later!

[Andy Onchan]

23 hours ago, Stu Peters said:

What would you, Suffolk and Nellie (or are they the same person?) like me to do that hasn’t already been done? For all that I enjoy a bit of banter on here, I’m not going to detail commercially or otherwise sensitive discussions so (again) you have no idea what I or anyone else has been doing to improve our air services.

I don’t suppose EJ is remotely happy about all these expensive and reputationally damaging cancellations so stamping our feet isn’t going to remedy anything. This strikes me partly as a result of demand for cheaper flights. When routes are operated on a filler basis late in the day, this is what can happen. So instead of complaining, why not come up with solutions to discuss. Closed skies? IOMG operating a national airline (maybe in partnership) on essential routes? Remember that there’s a limited customer market in the IOM to support any operations.

Stu. Most of the alternatives/solutions have been discussed on here but we're not in a position to make any of it happen. Only you  and your fellow MHKs can do that. The race to the bottom is clearly not the answer.

The question is, what will happen if/when EZY pull out of the LGW route due to diminishing returns? Have you had that discussion with your colleagues yet?

[WTF]

2 hours ago, Amadeus said:

I’m gonna start selling chips cheese and gravy kits at the airport. Seems to be a gap in the market.

head of marketing has been in touch and this is the provisional artwork , no sign of an Umlaut though so it may need  nationalising in some other way , maybe pickled cabbage ???

[swoopy2110]

1 hour ago, Banker said:

Possibly bit of both as someone just posted on Facebook that after Gatwick flight cancelled for ATC issues at Gatwick it then flew to Ibiza an hour later!

Maybe. The aircraft would be able to get to Ibiza and back to Gatwick again when they'd got a slot, without being restricted to airport closing time that they would have had if they'd sent it here.

[newaccount]

An article from this morning in the Independent

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/covid-cancellation-flight-gatwick-air-traffic-control-b2417880.html

 

An outbreak of Covid has been blamed for the third air-traffic control slowdown at London Gatwick so far this month.

Staff sickness in the control tower meant the “flow rate” of flights using the world’s busiest runway was reduced.

Fifty flights to and from the Sussex airport were cancelled or diverted, while many other services were delayed by up to seven hours.

An estimated 8,000 passengers were left out of position. Once again, easyJet made the vast majority of cancellations: a total of 42.

 

Eight flights were grounded between Gatwick and Belfast – six to and from the Northern Ireland capital’s International airport, and two serving Belfast City.

Multiple cancellations were also made on easyJet links with Edinburgh, Geneva and Paris CDG.

Daniel Wilkes, a consultant psychiatrist from Angus, was booked on the 7.15pm flight from Gatwick to Edinburgh. It was cancelled at 8.40pm.

He told The Independent: “I just can’t believe the lack of contingency planning from Nats for staff sickness and that this is happening again.

“Plus, airports and airlines have had quite a while to firm up their processes for cancellations, and yet always the poorly managed scrum ensues. Bizarrely, we were made to exit through border control. I didn’t even have my passport as it was a domestic flight.”

Dr Wilkes switched to a Monday morning easyJet flight from London Stansted to Edinburgh, which he reached by Uber at a price of £100 and booked a hotel at the Essex airport for an additional £159. “Fingers crossed [the airline] pays,” he said.

Another easyJet passenger, nurse Katie Williams, was one of hundreds affected by the cancellation of six flights between Gatwick and Amsterdam. She found an alternative flight home on British Airways, but at a fare of £666.

Under air passengers’ rights rules, easyJet is required to cover the cost of accommodation and additional transport when a flight is cancelled – regardless of the reason for the flight being grounded.

An easyJet spokesperson said: “We are extremely disappointed that customers are once again being impacted by this and while this is outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused to our customers.

“We are doing all possible to minimise the impact of the disruption and have notified those on cancelled flights of their options to rebook or receive a refund and are providing hotel accommodation and meals where required.”

A London Gatwick spokesperson said: “Due to short notice sickness in the air-traffic control tower including cases of Covid-19, temporary air traffic control restrictions were put in place yesterday. This caused some delays and cancellations by airlines.

“We worked hard to minimise disruption and we apologise for any inconvenience. The air-traffic control tower is fully staffed this morning.”

A spokesperson for Nats said: “We very much regret that some passengers experienced delays at Gatwick yesterday. This was due to short-notice staff sickness including some incidences of Covid.

“We did all we could to minimise disruption, working closely with the airport and airlines.

“We have worked very hard to increase the number of controllers, but it will take some time to build full resilience. It does mean, though, that short notice absences may lead to air-traffic control regulations being applied in order to maintain safety, and we are all very sorry for the impact this has.”

The Spanish budget airline Vueling cancelled six flights, to and from Barcelona, Bilbao and Paris Orly.

In addition, an easyJet flight from Ljubljana was diverted to Luton, while SkyExpress from Athens touched down in Zurich.

Edited September 25, 2023 by newaccount

[Stu Peters]

1 hour ago, Andy Onchan said:

Stu. Most of the alternatives/solutions have been discussed on here but we're not in a position to make any of it happen. Only you  and your fellow MHKs can do that. The race to the bottom is clearly not the answer.

The question is, what will happen if/when EZY pull out of the LGW route due to diminishing returns? Have you had that discussion with your colleagues yet?

We try to consider all eventualities and options, although it would be wrong of me to go into details here. Nobody in Tynwald is remotely happy about the current state of air travel. One thing is for sure - whatever we decide will be wrong for a lot of people.

If we still had plenty of money we'd possibly contract an operator to service all our key routes. But that would take significant funding, and since our cash cupboard is bare it would have to be passed on to either users or the general taxpayer. I don't know how many people fly (I've not flown commercially for almost a year and prior to that maybe one short return trip a year) so non-users would be aggrieved at subsidising gallivanters.

Or we could set up Manx Airlines (The Reboot) and we'd be slaughtered for thinking we could run an airline, especially as it could easily make a loss. I don't know how easy it would be to get slots into key destinations like LGW. I suspect closed skies - and I agree with MMP this has many potential benefits - would also be the end of cheap flights, which would create another furore from people who never went to Gatwick anyway (and it's the late Gatwick return seems the biggest problem).

We ARE trying to fix this, but not all commercial aviation problems are fixable locally.

[The Phantom]

1 hour ago, WTF said:

head of marketing has been in touch and this is the provisional artwork , no sign of an Umlaut though so it may need  nationalising in some other way , maybe pickled cabbage ???

Whatever you do, make sure you use the generic Celtic font on the marketing material. 

[Non-Believer]

7 minutes ago, Stu Peters said:

and I agree with MMP this has many potential benefits - would also be the end of cheap flights, which would create another furore from people who never went to Gatwick anyway

The whole basis of EZ being invited in, in the first instance was confusion and frustration from the travelling population over it costing £300+ return to fly IoM - London when you could fly on from London to Costa Wherever for £25.

Terry Liddard used to bang on about extortionate landing fees at Ronaldsway, on a par with or exceeding those of London airports. Are we surprised?