ppp909

Yes, I know there are delays and cancellations all over the place.
I'm stuck at Turin, with young kids. Flight to London from yesterday (which was cancelled) has been called. Today's is now showing as leaving at 0015, except the airport apparently closes at 11 and there are no planes on the sky apart from the one picking up yesterday's passengers.
No staff to be seen. No information. Nothing.
Apparently yesterday's passengers were stuck here until 11 before being told there was no plane.
I get there are problems and cancellations, but why are we sitting here, on the floor, with no information? They call this Club Europe? Why didn't they just tell us to get a hotel for the night?

Of course all the low cost airlines have been in and out. It's not a problem across the board. It's BA. Just BA.

KARFA

Are you on BA2759?

So from what I can see BA2758 from LHR has just arrived at TRN. As you say the return is showing an estimated departure of 0015 and arrival in LHR at 0107.

In terms of reasons, I am afraid it is operational problems for BA at LHR all day which is discussed in a few of the other ongoing threads on the board.

ppp909

Thanks for the response. They've just told us it will leave tomorrow. Apparently there's a hotel.

13901

I’ve just landed at City. It was the hairiest landing I’ve done in a good while. As I watch the disembarkation I can see the tensa barrier placed under the wing of the Ejet just FLY around. The plane is buffeting while on the tarmac.

In simple words, weather is sh*te out there and when it’s sh*te you have flow rate restrictions, limitations to use of Ground Service Equipment, the works. This means planes delayed, planes diverted, bags not offloaded.

Why doesn’t it happen to the LCCs? Well for starters we don’t know. But secondly, they aren’t operating from an airport that’s full. If NATS puts a flow rate restrictions of 20 movements an hour versus a normal amount of 45, you find yourself with cancellations. Even with a low(er) than usual flying programme.

Happens every year. Though it doesn’t normally happen to have 3 storms one after the other.

KARFA

With all due respect it is not the weather today which has caused the cancellation of all domestic flights past 1300, and many of the other short haul flights. Even BA are not pretending it is weather, most of the cancellation codes showing refer to lack of handling capacity and yes for EC261 compensation.

13901

The board here at LCY is showing, at this late hour, two diversions of the handful of arrivals there are. One Swiss from Geneva and a ZRH from BACF I believe. Sure there’s staffing issues, sure there are Covid cuts biting the airline in the rear, but had this 2019 there would’ve been disruption anyway. Especially after another two such events in the week, let’s be realistic.

KARFA

I am being.

The wind strength is high now as it has picked up since about 5pm, it hasn't been earlier in the day when most of the cancellations occurred. Also you are looking at LCY which is a much more restricted airport in terms of weather limitations. Go and have a look at the wind speeds all day at LHR. The disruption today on BA is well beyond anything that would have been expected pre covid with the weather conditions today.

13901

What’s the flow rate been at LHR today?

KARFA

No regulation until mid afternoon, then this for a few hours. This is not in anyway explanation for the meltdown we have seen for BA operations at LHR today.

KARFA

just to say if you do not have to wait to collect checked bags and don't mind a short walk I would be tempted to book this nearby hotel for the night and just claim it back later rather than waiting for hours to be sorted out at the airport

13901

You don’t have the number, then, so why do you say that the outside world has nothing to do with it?

I’m not disputing that low manpower had a part to play. If anyone bothers to read what I occasionally write on these pages, you’ll see that I did have some concerns about how lean the operation (especially below the wing), and that’s before the Covid cuts.

But.

It’d be disingenuous to pretend that the outside world had no bearing on the situation. This is all I’m saying. I’ve seen plenty of disruptions in my time at BA, and even a minor restriction can cause utter havoc. And eventually you run out of crew, or planes, or ground crews, or hotels, or all three. I don’t know what you do as a job but I’ve been there, the days when the whole short haul operation from midday to end of the day was wiped. I had to go to the baggage hall, with a police escort, to tell passengers that they wouldn’t be getting their bags. All before Covid.

That’s the crux of my point. Sure there are manpower issues. Sure there’s been some cock-up on the handling of these storms (what happened to tactical cancellations?) but eventually things run out, especially if the weather doesn’t cooperate.

ppp909

Thanks for the responses everyone. My problem is only partially to do with the cancellation. It happens sometimes, and when it's happened before it's been sorted pretty efficiently.
However today there has been so little information. No staff at the airport, presumably because they don't want to face angry passengers. Everything was done over the tannoy, until we were all standing outside, where there was a lady organising taxis for us all.
They must have known for hours that this flight was not going to happen. So why weren't we told to stay away from the airport? Why did they leave it so late that my kids ended up getting to bed after midnight?
And right now we have no information whatsoever about tomorrow's flight. If there is one. This is the problem. No information. No organisation.

olouie

Been like this for days at LHR now. Staff there are powerless and have to wait on hold for ages with their own call center to do anything. At least they are giving out hotel vouchers easier (although claiming they wouldn’t cover if you paid for your own hotel even though their email says they will haha). BA account all messed up too keeps adding the wrong FFN again and again and cannot find my bookings. What a disaster.

Confus

To close a loop here, the LHR flow rate went down to as low as 6 yesterday afternoon (it’s usually 45). Yes BA had their own meltdown, but with weather related restrictions shorthaul never really stood a chance. And winds were out of limits for GSE for much of the afternoon.

KARFA

At what time?

And what does GSE mean?