Originally Posted by
simons1
I understand the argument. Several days a year ATC will reduce the flow rate for weather reasons. That usually results in a handful of cancellations, mainly to domestic and Europe locations where flights can be combined.
That didn't happen here. So that may mean one of two things.
1. Conditions at the airfield were such that movement of aircraft was impeded in turn requiring cancellations beyond those mandated by ATC. That to me is a HAL issue and outside BA control.
I thought that the reason HAL (not ATC) asked for reduced flights into LHR was because the airport was out of stands due to crowds due to delays in deicing which was due initially to weather. One of the reasons that the cost for the propose third runway is so high is that LHR really needs more land/space to operate beyond just having an extra runway.
I think it's clear there's no obvious answer here. At a minimum the following factors contributed to Sunday and Monday's issues:
- Freezing rain caused a delay in initial deicing which got progressively more delayed as conditions worsened
- BA did not have sufficient deicing capacity (whether that's because of constraints at LHR or their own fault is not clear)
- Heathrow is too small in terms of land, stands, terminals, and runways, and runs close to 100% capacity every day
- BA's IT, phone, and airport capacity to manage and rebook customers during IRROPS is really shockingly poor
The last point I think comes down to BA having some of the most rigid rules in the industry, which makes it difficult for staff to help until the problem has turned into a crisis. By comparison AA seems incredibly flexible. Not that they never have problems, but they seem very quick to rebook people at even a hint of bad weather, and just in general seem to give their employees a lot more power to make changes. It also helps that they seem to have a lot more staff that can modify tickets (e.g. pretty much every agent working at the desk at their lounges, and at every gate).