Originally Posted by
PUCCI GALORE
May I add three to your list of shame?
- No tugs to push back. How often have we sat fuming for someone to show up
- No one to turn on the guidance systems to get on to stand.
- Bus boarding in this day and age. Why can they no tug aircraft on to a gate for boarding at least - or is that beyond the wit of anyone at Heathrow.
I frankly do not care who is to blame, but when you look at all the charges and taxes that we pay you realise that this is money for old rope and not only do they not care less but they are answerable to nobody.
In fairness, 1 and 2 are due to lack of people. Tug-related delays have declined with the introduction of Mototoks, for there's at least one for every two stands. Now, that has caused the rise of delays deriving from not having enough people driving the Mototoks! The one on guidance system is a symptom of a larger problem, i.e. lack of people. Flight crews mention that because it's the first thing they encounter in the daisy-chain of events leading to the eventual disembarkation of passengers and their bags, but if one were to - say - automate the stand guidance system without fixing the underlying issue, then the next bit (chocks and power) would be the problem. I'm told things are changing with the gradual un-doing of the plans put in place by the then CEO and director of LHR, but it takes
tiime.
Remote stands, I'm afraid, will never be avoided. Runway capacity is often discussed, but the other big issue is stand capacity. That's as much of a problem as slots to take off and land.