[Hess963]

Stay in the line and keep alienating the other users here, VK. I know you now it–and I am just enjoying it–reading your comments !! I know Simon–you can handle it very well against VK–but be careful though !

[VintageKrug]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLcc19mt4eA

[SimonRowberry]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHcT5qaksvE

[Expat_Consultant]

The snow and ice have now been with us for weeks; today’s conditions are not objectively extreme and were predicted well in advance. So transport operators are going to struggle to convince anyone that the problems are really down to ‘exceptionally bad weather’ and not ‘routinely bad management’. What do other business travellers think, and can anyone give us the lowdown on operations inside the airports and airlines?

I won’t repeat all of my comments from the BA ‘nightmare’ threads, but I think this can be summed up in three bullet points

1 – lack of strategic thinking by the airports

2 – lack of proper risk management, to deal with ice/snow when it occurs

3 – lack of will to deal with a problem that arises relatively infrequently

[Wildgoose]

Perhaps the owners of LHR, Ferrovial, simply don’t have the cash for purchasing de-icing material?
Also, as it snows with regularity in Scotland, it would be interesting to see how ABZ, EDI, and GLA have dealt with the weather.
Surely the Scottish airports have some spare de-icing equipment they can send down to London?
As much as we would like to keep the threads apolitical, I’m afraid this isn’t always possible as the travel industry, climate change, and politics are all now inextricably linked. The best we can hope for is for posters keeping their party politcal propoganda to themselves.
Anyway, isn’t it ironic that baggage handlers are being labelled “commies” when, in reality, any sort of strike action in the few remaining or erstwhile communist countries would have been dealt with thuggishly by the authorities.

[Expat_Consultant]

Wildgoose

There is always the option of leasing equipment, if cashflow is a challenge.

In reality, I doubt that it snows much more in GLA, EDI and ABZ than it does in London (a different matter in parts of the highlands, inland), but I don’t have the data to back up my feelings on this.

[Wildgoose]

Having lived in Aberdeenshire for 7 years I can assure you it DOES snow more up there than down here in the ‘bufty’ South East. Let us also not forget that ABZ is a vital portal/gateway for the oil rigs and needs to be kept operational at all costs and at all times. Perhaps the other UK airports could learn a thing or two from ABZ.

[davidbell]

Expat_Consultant,

leasing the equipment sounds fine, but as everyone needs the same equipment for the same short duration of the year, and the equipment for the rest of the year would remain unusued, just who would provide this equipment to be leased? Or are you suggesting that this equipment be moved around the various airports in Europe, balancing the days of the week when it snows in Paris, Rome, Frankfurt and London, and hope that the snow days don’t overlap?

[Author]

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