Bluekjp

Booked an out and back to AMS this morning to give my young nephew a ride on a Dreamliner in flat beds. Very late last night the aircraft was substituted to an A320 and new boarding cards sent out. Once onboard and doors closed we were told that we'll be parking in a quiet corner of Heathrow somewhere and will wait 2.5 hours before we can take off, due to blustery conditions in AMS and hence larger separations for landing aircraft. BA crew superb with refreshments.
All in a day's travelling and can't be helped. No complaints from us, although wouldn't have boarded had we been told of delay before stepping on to the aircraft. Presuming perhaps that when BA got wind (excuse pun) of the weather delays last night they didn't want to tie up a 787 for half the day. Fair dinkum.

dkeng

Looks like Schiphol is down to essentially single runway operation today as the Kaagbaan is closed for maintenance and they can’t use the north/south runways due to the wind.

Standard operation during disruption for AMS to board shorhauls then have them sit around waiting for an arrival slot. Not fun, but probably better than long holds in the air above the Netherlands.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi
Also, if everyone is boarded and the aircraft is ready then it is possible that earlier time slot for departure which would not be possible if boarding is delayed

Regards
tbs

jayjaygee

The wind does tend to cause problems at AMS and the works that have been going on has obviously had a major affect today.

I'd be grateful that I won't be landing at Haarlem International and taxiing for half an hour and that the queue at passport control may be a bit lighter when I arrive.

The aircraft swap is unfortunate though and I don't think that the weather would have caused this as the 787 has been used for larger cargo transport rather than passenger demand.

happyintheair

I'm here too, delayed and slightly despairing at the overall state of Schiphol these days.

It's *filthy*, loads of power sockets are broken, there's obvs no BA lounge (because... I forget whatever the reason is) but a lot of the half decent cafes are shut too.

I could just about accepts Corona forces lounge or even cafe closures, but surely it makes it more important to clean things? it's not a staffing issue as there appear to be many airport workers around.

The delay bit is - meh but clearly not BA's fault.

mikeyfly

Out of interest, is AMS a simple on and off again ? I am doing the last rotation (hopefully!) on Boxing Day and don't want to scupper my next day longhaul

etiene

It's pretty d*mn windy here today, and would indeed be the wrong direction for Schiphol to keep the numbers up. Was similar yesterday, but I think the wind's picked up more overnight.

DYKWIA

It's really annoying when they do that. I had the same a couple of times with Easyjet at MAN. On one occasion, we pushed back, taxied out to parking spot and then told we'd have a 3 hour delay! Some very annoyed people who then wanted to get off as it wasn't worth going, but initially told this wasn't possible.

After a couple of hours, delay went to 4 hours, so we taxied back to the gate and anybody who wanted to get off had the option. No sooner had they left, the doors were closed and we pushed back. We'd been given an earlier slot, and eventually landed around 3 hours late.

To round off a great flight, there was a fight at the back on approach which meant we had to wait for the Police on arrival (7am flight originally - big group of lads drinking all their duty free in the delay).

South London Bon Viveur

Agreed- Schiphol has seen better days, although they seem to have invested a bit in upgrading security. Is the BA lounge still closed then? I was there a few weeks ago, but on KL, so did not venture up to the BA lounge.

LDH64

The lounge is still closed. When I flew a couple of weeks ago they told me that there is no planned reopening date and then added that it may never reopen again. As for the airport, some areas are exceptionally dirty at the moment - really not a good sign at the moment. The broken walkways never seem to get repaired either.

Bluekjp

Yes, absolutely. Today we emptied straight into the departure gate among the departing passengers. So guaranteed. This was for an A320. Not sure about E190's from LCY.

Bluekjp

We finally turned round, very efficiently, in 50 minutes with a full load and leaving behind some overbooked passengers due to the very last minute downgrade of a busy 787-9 to the A320 and so clawed back 40 minutes of the delay as the 787 would have had a 90 minute turnaround. However, at LHR we were directed to gate 509 and watched the aircraft thereon push back only for its Mototok to break down, and seemingly the replacement Mototok too. We taxied off awaiting another free gate which meant another 1 hour 20 onboard to add to the 2.30 hours onboard on the outbound. The BA crew were top, top throughout and extremely apologetic and accommodating throughout even though it wasn't in their hands to fix. I was sat next to the repositioning BA Cityflyer crew including pilot of the 16.40 LCY/RTM today. With doors opening at 3.14 they would have had their work cut out to get across today's gridlocked roads in the rush hour period. I see that it departed around 2 hours late, perhaps partly due to weather.
It was just one of those days.

Mekko

Weather causing issues in AMS again today.

Currently parked off stand near 27L waiting for a slot on the delayed 432 - seems we might only be running 30 mins behind schedule, but hoping weather doesn’t deteriorate further, primarily for the benefit of those on the 433 return sector later today