Feb
21
Disruption – the airlines fault? Part 1
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A lot of stuff hit the fan in the US recently. Passenger reaction to Jet Blue’s and other carrier’s woes over disruption is interesting and worthy of a little inspection. Airlines generally get a bad press during system delays largely due to the chaos that reigns in the terminals with so many people packed into what becomes a small space. A truly human problem and a very human reaction.
If we are all to be grown up people here we need to look at airline disruption for what it really is, the machine grinding to a halt for good reason. Every carrier in every country experiences the consequences of severe weather and how they handle the problem of course defines how the traveling public view the airlines competence. How we handle it in a civilization is starting to define us. The airlines have work to do in many departments.
Let’s look at the effects of heavy snow closing airports and doing its worse to the system.
When snow starts to fall delays immediately start to be felt in the system by aircraft inbound and aircraft on the gate waiting to go. The cause? runway snow clearance programs. Aircraft can land with light coverings or even packed deposits if braking on the runway for departing and landing aircraft is not too badly degraded.
Falling snow complicates matters as it accumulates because it needs removing and the braking action measurements being taken don’t stay valid for long. Taxi-ways become ill defined and slippery, ramp lead-in guidance becomes obscured and the gate areas become dangerous due to slippery surfaces and a similar problem with entry guidance onto gates. The flying game begins to slow right down, and it needs to, to remain safe.
During sustained snowfall it isn’t long before the airport closes for runway clearance forcing inbound traffic to divert to an unaffected airport or one where it has stopped snowing and the clearance effort has reopened runways and taxi-ways. Some airports alternate runway clearance and manage to stay open, but the rate that they can handle traffic reduces and aircraft are still forced to divert because they do not have sufficient fuel to wait around.
Next problem – at the diversion airfield.
The ‘open’ airfield that has received all the diverted traffic is flooded because it is, by definition convenient for the destination, gate space is at a premium and the place is busy. The refueling and handling facilities become loaded as the airport tries to cope with its now delayed regular departures (waiting to go to the place the diversion aircraft couldn’t land at) and the diverted aircraft.