Bristol Airport, eh, in trouble

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/reuters/uNews/9643482

Bristol airport shuts runway in safety row
From:Reuters
Sunday, 07 January, 2007

LONDON (Reuters) - Bristol International Airport closed its runway on Sunday to speed up resurfacing work after 10 airlines suspended operations because of safety concerns.

Since Friday, 369 flights have been cancelled or diverted after the airlines, including low-cost operator easyJet, raised concerns over braking in wet conditions.

"All flights for the rest of Sunday and Monday morning will be either diverted or cancelled," Bristol Airport said in a statement.

"This decision has been made in consultation with our airline partners. This will allow us to fast-track the on-going work on the temporary surface of part of the runway, which could otherwise only be done at night.

"We are confident that for those airlines which have suspended their operations, this will address their concerns and allow them to resume operations."

Bristol Airport expects to complete a 17-million-pound five-month resurfacing of the runway in March.

A Bristol Airport spokesman said 16 incoming and outgoing flights would be affected on Sunday. He was unable to give a figure for Monday due to the uncertainty as to when the resurfacing work would be completed.

Last year 5.6 million passengers used the airport.

FlutterinBantam

Apparently several pilots reported the braking action poor in wet or slippery conditions.

Aer Lingus not too confident of being able to operate in there today per a spokesman and in that event will use cardiff and LHR to re-route their passengers.

Interesting scenario in the offing when the "Insurance " claims start landing on desks

lostexpectation

the worst thing about that was how the two airport spokesman handled it,they still both denying there is a problem and then being really smarmy about it.

therecklessone

Runway open and services starting to return to normal today, with some disruption expected to continue through the day.

Responding to criticism over the amount of time it was taking to sort the problem out, Mr Hallwood apologised to customers and said: "We had to wait for the regulatory authorities to approve this unique form of grooving to the runway.

"As of yesterday afternoon when we gained that approval we fast-tracked our activity to ensure we carried the work over the last 12 hours and we now have a successful conclusion and look forward to passengers returning to Bristol later this morning.

Utter bull. They panicked because their poxy little airport was a ghost town yesterday after 10 operators pulled flights due to safety concerns. This has been an ongoing problem since completion of the runway surface, with pilots and ATC staff at Bristol highlighting the issue. As usual, the suits stuck their head in the sand until they were hit in the pocket.

Spent yesterday evening on a train from Bristol to Birmigham after my flight home was cancelled, I was one of the lucky ones who heard about the runway closure just after it happened (bus driver told me), otherwise I'd have been in Cardiff for the day and wouldn't have fund out until late yesterday evening, too late to make alternate arangements. funny they couldn't publicise their intended remedial work at 11am yesterday morning, but were happy to close the airport at 3pm at a half hours notice.

lazygit

flew into Bristol airport about 6 weeks ago.. when we landed it took bloody ages to stop, it was raining and we reached the very end of the runway.. i mean the Very very end.. we hand to reverse and turn around to get off it.... mad stuff.. i even said to the chap next to me that it looked like we were going to go off the end at one stage...