Rant
 

Ok, No1 news story here is wikileaks, obviously..
but no2 atm is the airports shutdown, mainly the UK ones...



It is not


That would be a hotel.

Its not the airports jobs to provide you with shelter, food and water.

Oh, and the reason that the people cant provide info on when theyll be up to full capacity is because of the weather, and, I could be wrong here, but im pretty sure the airlines or airports dont control the weather..

I agree in a way, the airport isn't a hotel. But as with all business agreements the company has a set of rules/laws to abide. Just as you have when buying for example a camera. It should function as it's intended and in the form it was advertised.

If the camera does not comply to the intended function you should be entitled to either have it fixed, replaced or you should be entiteld to have your money back.

Same goes for the airlines, they have advertised that you should be flying with an airplane at a fixed day and time. This a contract between you and the airline. In case of snow or as before an vulkanic eruption you are entitled to be reembersed as the airline broke the contract, you will not be flying with that company on that set time and date to a set destination. You should either get your money back for the canned flight or you should if you are far from home and the delay passes a day or two you are entitled to be reembersed for hotell aswell as food cost during the remaining time.

However it is not the airports responsability to do this, it's the airlines. The airport is however responsible to reemberse the airlines if they can not keep the runways open there by not upholding the slot times that the airlines are paying for.

You could argue Force Majeure, but as seen with the Icelandic incident it's not that easy for the airlines to shout Force Majeure and then be without responsability however much they write it into their contracts.

This is by Swedish laws and there may be local differences but I do remember that EU said something regaring reembersment as of the Icelandic incident. Can't remember exactly what they said as to what the airlines ware responsible of as it was a long time ago and the memory is failing me on that point.

Just read about how heathrow handaled this snow fall. It shouldn't take two days to clear an airport when there's 8 cm of snow, considering they had all the means as said by the company that run it.

It's just alsmost sick to handle things that way. Several other airports in UK ware able to handle it alot better!

Because this has to do with weather I really don't think it's anyones responsibility to give out accommodations or credits for people to stay in a hotel, or feed them. When it's snowing at 1ft per hour, it's really not the airports fault they can't keep the runway clean. It's for the safety of everyone that the plane remains on the ground.. This is something no one can control. It's not like the airports do this stuff for fun. It has to be pretty risky before they are willing to call it off, because when they do they instantly start to loose money.

I can understand everyone is probably angry, but if your angry at the airports or airlines then your directing it in the wrong place. No one can control mother nature. The only compensation that should happen in a case like this is a refund of the flight, because they didn't fly at the time they expected to. Nothing more, nothing less.

I can't say I wouldn't be very angry if this happened to me but logic would eventually take over and give me a nice back hand. No one controls the weather and while your plane might be fine on take off and/or flying, if something does happen, there are 100 families waiting in line to sue everyone responsible, because they should have delayed the flights in the first place.

People are funny like that.

yup agreed with that scott

snowing none stop there no way keep the landing strips clear, soon one area is clear and they move to next area to clear! that area they did clear is cover with deep snow again.

most of the time they have to stop and wait for snow to ether stop totally. $$$ and death awaiting if they release the planes to take off! air traffic controller be blame and the people who trying to do their jobs to clear the landing strips & plane of snow.

it always cheaper to refund the tickets then pay for some ones death for wrongful part on their end

in the USA if a air line (Delta did it to me 2x) told you get on the wrong plane! they have to put you up for the night and next day send you on another plane for free to go were one should have gone to.

that's if the ticket was paid for to go to the right place start with! they change the gate were the right plane was to be at, yup it was all their fault!

man them manager really can get very nasty about it totally, they double check see what really happen, air traffic controller send two 747 to the wrong gate to pickup people from or the ground people did. both were delta planes to lol

it was late at night and the airport's was closing for the night! so they put me up in a Richy hotel not a cheap one ether. i didn't ask but was nice there.

On the accomadation I can only speak as of the Swedish regualations.

But snow clearing is another thing:

I can understand if it was 1ft per hour but it was a total of 3in in one day, this took two days to clear, during these two days there ware no snow fall. If an airport can't clear that amount in less the two days it's appauling.

Not doing a thing untill it's too late is also a failure. You don't wait to clear the snow first when it's stoped snowing, then there's nothing else to do but close the airport. It's better to have a delay of 30 min to clear the runways and de-ice the planes then to close the whole airport down.

These 8cm (3in) was reported by heathrow as "unprecedented", they also exadriated the snow fall claiming alot more then it really was to make it look alot worse so their failure would be lessened. I saw fotage a passanger had taken showing one single plow running around heathrow, they have over 50!

I'm aware that they can't have the same redyness we have here on Swedish airports as they don't have winter half the year but they should be able to clear a bit of snow and ice when they have all the equippment for it, it should also be done quicker the two days. It's a massive failure for heathrow in my book. Maybe I have too high standards? I really doubt that though. :rofl:

You've got to be aware of the fact that we don't have this weather every year. This is freak weather to us so the airports can't be expected to know exactly what to do straight away. Just the same as nobody uses snow tyres, because 9 years out of 10, it doesn't snow, and then one year it does so there is no logic buying them for a few days every decade.

Thats just my view thought. If they have the plows there then fair enough, but if it's left for a day, then the bottom layer will turn to ice, making it even harder.

Yes, you can't expect it to be flawless but two days is serious. They have the plows and machines to take care of it. They say themselfs that they have 50 machines all togather to battle snow and ice. They have 50 "snow specialists", I don't argue that if they can't bring the planes down safely they should close, because thats the right choice. It's just that they have all means of doing so but yet they dont and that really ticks me because this effected all airlines and airports that had flights to and from Heathrow around the world.

They ware even offered help from the army to clear the airport quickly, but they said no, because they had all the means of doing it themselfs :dontknow:

Also compare these 50 employees, to Gatwicks 150! Gatwick is half the size of Heathrow? Yet they have dubble the budget of Heathrow. And Gatwick are planning on putting that budget up 7 fold next year. Is Heathrow heading into bankruptcy? It sure seems like it. :dontknow:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101221/...europe_weather

I don't think anyone should be responsible for the accommodations but they shouldn't charge them for the tickets.

oof too much reading here.

afaik the airports HAVE taken responsibility for the missed flights. they don't have enough equipment to clear the runways and run at 98% capacity so are screwed if any problem arises.

the airline/airport is surely responsible for their customers? if your airline tells you to go to the airport to get a plane, but can;t tell you when it will leave, then you have no choice but to wait in the airport... at the cost of the airline/airport.

if they need more equipment then prices will have to go up to pay for it... so be it :)

Yes, but they say they do have the equipment and even turned down help because they didn't need it ;)

the help (armed forces) was offered by the government on the day the airport reopened... they also said the help was non-specific i.e. manpower only and not the deicing equipment needed for the planes.

hey i completely agree it's a farce on all accounts but airports in scandinavia don't have this problem so i'm not just gonna blame the weather. it's unfortunate it's at one of the world's busiest airports with no spare capacity, other airports shut and noone gave a smoke.

there are tv documenteries on over here every other day all about this issue and exactly nothing has changed since last year. unfortunately we've had 10 years of mild winters and it looks like we've got 2 harsh ones in a row. i mean it was -18 the other day, and the average temp is about +7 in November usually. everyone will moan no matter what happens, the govnt could spend around 2Billion GBP to resolve the issues via taxes but then we get one mild winter and ppl will be ranting and wanting their money back hehe :D

That's pretty much what happens with everything...

Oh didn't say when they offered it, guess it was a bit late then hehe

Yeah I can see the issue of having that kind of freekishly low temps when you're not used to having them! Any deaths caused by it?

Yes people will moan, it's the nature of humans, besides in places where they have a reason to moan, they live with a sperit higher then the sky and never moan about a thing :huh: I moan about things I really shouldn't moan about aswell :(