asitis Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Shamblesway continued .......... From a passenger on the 0950 Gatwick , On the 950 Gatwick flight this morning. Pushed back engine started then we got some snow. Taxied in to be de-ice. Ah.. the one man who can use the de-icer is not at the airport, presumably at home, half an hour away. He turns up an hour later and is now on the cherry picker. And the sun has come out . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoTailT Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 1 hour ago, asitis said: Shamblesway continued .......... From a passenger on the 0950 Gatwick , On the 950 Gatwick flight this morning. Pushed back engine started then we got some snow. Taxied in to be de-ice. Ah.. the one man who can use the de-icer is not at the airport, presumably at home, half an hour away. He turns up an hour later and is now on the cherry picker. And the sun has come out . Priceless Ronaldsway shambles. As if nobody looked at the forecast. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonatti Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 2 hours ago, NoTailT said: Priceless Ronaldsway shambles. As if nobody looked at the forecast. Difficult one this. Ground handling, including aircraft de-icing, is carried out by private company and nothing to do with airport management. The pandemic had a huge affect on their staff with redundancies and reduced wages. The last two years has probably been a very unpleasant time for them with constant worry about their future. They are probably still low on pre-pandemic numbers and moral low. This kind of situation is totally understandable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoTailT Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 15 minutes ago, bonatti said: Difficult one this. Ground handling, including aircraft de-icing, is carried out by private company and nothing to do with airport management. The pandemic had a huge affect on their staff with redundancies and reduced wages. The last two years has probably been a very unpleasant time for them with constant worry about their future. They are probably still low on pre-pandemic numbers and moral low. This kind of situation is totally understandable. Rubbish. Menzies are pretty well ramped up right now. If wintry conditions are forecast, it should be the job of the airport management to ensure that deicing facilities will be available. Its forward planning, something airports all around the world - big or small - do on a daily basis. Let's not also forget attempts by airport management to block another handling licence for the airport to bring competition on this service. Airlines pay considerably more for IOM handling than they do at e.g. Manchester or Liverpool. I have no sympathy with the handlers. If there is a lack of available deicing equipment, I wonder if that should also have been NOTAM'd for arriving crews to consider. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingpeelman Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Menzies are not at all ramped up. Quite a few on long term sick or have left. And from what I’m hearing there is a freeze on recruitment to replace those who have gone. In my past professional experience the guys & gals down there at Menzies, go above and beyond for the airlines they serve to the best of their ability. Last night for example - the EZY LPL was running late and needed to be airborne by certain time before the airport shut, the Menzies team got the aircraft safely and professionally out with a full load of passengers, in 22 minutes. Keep up the good work down there guys and gals! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoTailT Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 7 minutes ago, flyingpeelman said: Menzies are not at all ramped up. Quite a few on long term sick or have left. And from what I’m hearing there is a freeze on recruitment to replace those who have gone. In my past professional experience the guys & gals down there at Menzies, go above and beyond for the airlines they serve to the best of their ability. Last night for example - the EZY LPL was running late and needed to be airborne by certain time before the airport shut, the Menzies team got the aircraft safely and professionally out with a full load of passengers, in 22 minutes. Keep up the good work down there guys and gals! Nobody is saying they're doing a bad job, my experience is that they do a great job. But getting an aircraft out in <30mins is their job, it's what the airlines pay them to do. It is not acceptable that between them and airport management, they can't get their heads together to think 'Oh our customers (the airlines) might need deicing'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingpeelman Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 I appreciate that, and i didn’t mean for my reply to say you did’nt. All I was trying to say, they always do the best they can. But as they are already down in numbers with so many off sick/ left the business and apparent recruitment freeze - they can only do their best. Dosent help sometimes the actual airport isn’t big enough to handle so many airbus aircraft at same time or sometimes just one. That arrivals tunnel is just a pain in the **** Beggars belief that on a Friday teatime in the summer, EasyJet have scheduled 3 flights to depart ronaldsway at the same time. Madness! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asitis Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 (edited) No excuses, just read the bloody forecast like every other person concerned with providing aviation and ensure de icing is available ! That's what they are good at excuses !! Broadside at management not Menzies staff ! Edited February 19, 2022 by asitis 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoTailT Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 22 minutes ago, asitis said: No excuses, just read the bloody forecast like every other person concerned with providing aviation and ensure de icing is available ! That's what they are good at excuses !! Broadside at management not Menzies staff ! Precisely my bloody point. Look at the forecast and say 'guys, we need to make sure we are ready in case we need this tomorrow'. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omobono Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 13 minutes ago, NoTailT said: Precisely my bloody point. Look at the forecast and say 'guys, we need to make sure we are ready in case we need this tomorrow'. you know the old saying Lessons will be learned , but we know they never will , its always someone else's problem at the DOT that didn't fare any better putting a bit of salt on the roads either , they obviously don't listen to the local weather forecast either , they are a shambles ! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonatti Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 On 2/19/2022 at 5:41 PM, NoTailT said: Rubbish. Menzies are pretty well ramped up right now. If wintry conditions are forecast, it should be the job of the airport management to ensure that deicing facilities will be available. Its forward planning, something airports all around the world - big or small - do on a daily basis. Let's not also forget attempts by airport management to block another handling licence for the airport to bring competition on this service. Airlines pay considerably more for IOM handling than they do at e.g. Manchester or Liverpool. I have no sympathy with the handlers. If there is a lack of available deicing equipment, I wonder if that should also have been NOTAM'd for arriving crews to consider. I'm really not sure how responsibility lies with airport management. Operators contract a handling agent to carry this out. It is up to the operator to ensure the handler is capable of doing so and also good practice to ensure, on hearing of forecast bad weather, that they are aware of the situation and have planned accordingly. Menzies have their faults but their de-icing equipment is the best that the airport has ever seen, and up the the start of the pandemic, they were always very reliable when it came to aircraft de-icing. My sympathy lies with their staff and the difficult last two years they have had. The airport is still no where near back to pre-pandemic levels with regards to aircraft movements and passenger numbers, and they might still have low staff numbers as a result of this. Trained staff might of left to find work elsewhere and new starters will still be training up. This all takes time and not all staff are capable or suitable to carry out aircraft de-icing. I'm well aware of how shambolic airport management are and totally agree with you on this point but they cannot be blamed for every delay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asitis Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 I agree with Bonatti mostly, but the overall responsibility for how the airport operates from day to day lies with the director. We have had two people in charge, both of who have been deluded as to the function of an island regional airport like ours. One was a consummate bullshitter, whose only talents were constantly searching for ways to expand and spend rafts of cash in order to do so, whilst convincing the weak minded that management speak was the answer to all ills !. The one we are left with is a dangerous Walter Mitty, who knows just about zero about running anything, but whose public persona appears to disguise any discernible lack of talent. There are no excuses for the current state of airport management, it is simply a shambles. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Peters Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 New director due to be appointed soon, the DoI Minister told me in a Tynwald answer last week. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 On 2/19/2022 at 7:49 PM, asitis said: No excuses, just read the bloody forecast like every other person concerned with providing aviation and ensure de icing is available ! I always thought the Met Office is actually located at the Airport. I could be wrong though... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadAsHell Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 10 minutes ago, The Phantom said: I always thought the Met Office is actually located at the Airport. I could be wrong though... As effective as any other DoI division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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