Dublin Airport

rc28

Just got back from airport to pick up relation who was on the last plane to land before it closed (he said tarmac was totally covered in snow). First they were left waiting on runway for 1.5 hours as there were no free slots and then inside the terminal there was total chaos to get to baggage claim - enormous queues of people and that queue took about 2 hours to get through. :mad:

I feel so sorry for those not getting home for Christmas now. Departures was packed solid with people frantic and in tears - never seen anything like it Lots were getting a bit drunk in the bars though :eek:

Meanwhile terminal 2 was totally empty and lovely and warm - people should sleep there rather than t1.

rc28

foxylady5160 wrote: »

Well I'm delighted that Dublin Airport is shut down from political point of view. Not for the many people who can't get home, genuinely feel for. I would give rooms in my house just to be sure that people have a bed and safe. But I'm tired of D. Airport this and that bla bla bla. In fairness the west is suffering as bad but managing. Like the last time with the Ash good olde Shannon saved the day. I believe like in Cyprus when Nicosica Airport was overtaken years ago. The Cypriots build Larnaca airport in 40days. All I'm saying that they should not lay all the eggs in 1 basket and afterall Shannon should be the 2nd airport to on standby and recognised for its efforts. Tonight all flights are coming and going and most other airports like Knock, Farranfore. TG. Shannon got raving reviews in the times and awarded for this. I don't see a big celebration for this. I'm very disappointed in that regard.

I hope to all the passengers do get home safe and sound. Please god we will learn lesson from this. THings will and have to change at this stage and age. Spending huge money on an airport terminal will not sort the problems or political conquest. Shannon (had the longest runway in Europe) has more meaning to most and is the last pit stop for across the seas.

That's not a fair comparison. It has been bucketing snow at Dublin airport for most of the evening - really heavy stuff too with 0 visibility at time. No snow at Shannon, Cork or Knock for days now.

YogiBoy

I just saw 1825 FR 963 Stockholm Skavsta - Dublin DIVERTEDon
http://www.flightradar24.com/index.php?fa=1&heightmaxunit=ft&heightminunit=ft&speedmaxunit=knots&speedminunit=knots&airplfil=ryr&airplfiltype=callsign
It was heading down to Cork, after coming down over Louth. Then somewhere just beyond Kilkenny, about 25m ago, it made a U turn, heading either back towards Dublin or Belfast. It has now disappeared from .flightradar24.com. So either it landed at Dublin, or has fallen out of .flightradar24.com. Guesses?

DrEvil

gar32 wrote: »

The staff have to go home & get some sleep. New staff in at 5am must be

They're there 24/7, no rest for airport staff!

dav3

foxylady5160 wrote: »

Well I'm delighted that Dublin Airport is shut down from political point of view. Not for the many people who can't get home, genuinely feel for. I would give rooms in my house just to be sure that people have a bed and safe. But I'm tired of D. Airport this and that bla bla bla. In fairness the west is suffering as bad but managing. Like the last time with the Ash good olde Shannon saved the day. I believe like in Cyprus when Nicosica Airport was overtaken years ago. The Cypriots build Larnaca airport in 40days. All I'm saying that they should not lay all the eggs in 1 basket and afterall Shannon should be the 2nd airport to on standby and recognised for its efforts. Tonight all flights are coming and going and most other airports like Knock, Farranfore. TG. Shannon got raving reviews in the times and awarded for this. I don't see a big celebration for this. I'm very disappointed in that regard.

I hope to all the passengers do get home safe and sound. Please god we will learn lesson from this. THings will and have to change at this stage and age. Spending huge money on an airport terminal will not sort the problems or political conquest. Shannon (had the longest runway in Europe) has more meaning to most and is the last pit stop for across the seas.

The west isn't managing too well, Shannon airport ran out of de-icing fluid this evening.

soccerc

foxylady5160 wrote: »

Well I'm delighted that Dublin Airport is shut down from political point of view. Not for the many people who can't get home, genuinely feel for. I would give rooms in my house just to be sure that people have a bed and safe. But I'm tired of D. Airport this and that bla bla bla. In fairness the west is suffering as bad but managing. Like the last time with the Ash good olde Shannon saved the day. I believe like in Cyprus when Nicosica Airport was overtaken years ago. The Cypriots build Larnaca airport in 40days. All I'm saying that they should not lay all the eggs in 1 basket and afterall Shannon should be the 2nd airport to on standby and recognised for its efforts. Tonight all flights are coming and going and most other airports like Knock, Farranfore. TG. Shannon got raving reviews in the times and awarded for this. I don't see a big celebration for this. I'm very disappointed in that regard.

I hope to all the passengers do get home safe and sound. Please god we will learn lesson from this. THings will and have to change at this stage and age. Spending huge money on an airport terminal will not sort the problems or political conquest. Shannon (had the longest runway in Europe) has more meaning to most and is the last pit stop for across the seas.

This is the weather forum, albeit with a Dublin Airport thread, so I'll desist from punching holes in almost every point you are trying to make.

wonderfulname

Another front line story, I don't think people realise how ridiculous it was out there tonight.

I was meant to be flying out with ryanair at 4.10, after 5 gate changes and 3 different projected delays we were herded onto a plane at 5pm, it actually hurt to walk in the conditions outside at this point.
The plane did not move, it was not de-iced. We were told to get back off at approx 19.45, we were told nothing other than that the airport was closing.

When we got inside we found that every bloody ryanair flight that was due to leave in the hour or so we were had gone through the exact same thing, and every single passenger had been sent back into the airport at exactly the same time. The gangway was pretty much as crowded as a mosh pit. DAA were penning us in from the front, letting everyone out about 20 at a time - every time they let people through the crowd surged forward in anticipation, as crowds do, and slowly everything got a little more claustrophobic. Passport control was the same, finally the guards injected a little common sense and managed to clear it, opening service corridors to us.

The scene at the front of the airport was quite interesting I must say, firstly Ryanair had suddenly seen fit to shut up shop and leave. Airlingus, who had treated their passengers pretty fairly in not sitting them on a runway for the craic, had staff out helping DAA with information and crowd control - they were very proactive in making sure people got accommodation and even gave out meal vouchers to their customers. There was not a single Ryanair employee in the building.
DAA had been given the line "Ryanair customer service is now closed, please go online to rebook your flight", something which was, at the time, impossible - and entirely because of Ryanair.

As far as I can see Ryanair and DAA managed that situation absolutely appallingly, and that twat O'Leary should shut up before people start pointing out exactly what Ryanair were up to.

Ghost Train

Also had the ryanair experience, lined up to board for 16.10 flight. Left waiting while 16.10 came and went, eventually another set of passengers took over the gate, moved to different gate where other group of passengers boarding their plane. Eventually flight cancelled at 18.30 and crowds left wondering how to collect bags and leave, took an age to reclaim bags in the packed baggage area. But only info provided was what on the boards, very few announcements about gate changes or what was going on. All seemed very stop start, till eventually snow was continuous and runways closed.

YogiBoy

THere is seemingly both one EI flight (from central Europe) http://www.flightradar24.com/index.php?fa=1&heightmaxunit=ft&heightminunit=ft&speedmaxunit=knots&speedminunit=knots&airplfil=ein&airplfiltype=callsign
and one Ryanair flight (from Iberia)
http://www.flightradar24.com/index.php?fa=1&heightmaxunit=ft&heightminunit=ft&speedmaxunit=knots&speedminunit=knots&airplfil=ryr&airplfiltype=callsign
heading for Dublin now. No info on flight number or origin - so probably not scheduled flights
Great craic with flightradar24.com ! But I'm off to bed.

Anita Blow

Clear skies at the airport now

Irish Steve

devnull wrote: »

They're quite a unionized airline though, by allowing staff to come home,only rather than flying from home, it negates any risk of them getting stranded somewhere until the early hours or the next day, I would suspect this decision has been taken with that in mind.

At the end of the day, in my own experience, whilst Aer Lingus are a good airline, in times of disruption their passengers always tend to take second place over what is best for their staff.

A friend of mines friend last week had a flight to Warsaw, and it was diverted to Berlin and involved a 12 hour road trip. EI refused to Land at any airport in Poland which was 2 hours away, as they did not normally serve them, so landed at the nearest EI airport despite the fact it was 600km away.

They go to the airport that is best for the situation, for all sorts of good reasons, none of which are related to the flight crew. The airport they go to has to have the capability to handle the aircraft, which in Aer Lingus case means specialised equipment that can offload the baggage containers, and transport them to the baggage hall. They also have to have the right equipment to be able to push the aircraft off stand, and to be able to get passengers on and off the aircraft.

Many of the Eastern European airports are more accustomed to handling soviet bloc aircraft, which have completely different requirements to the Airbus.

Depending on the area, the aircraft may not have the necessary data to allow the crew to operate into the other available airports in the area.

If they go to a non standard airport for the airline, the catering suppliers at that airport will not have the necessary items to allow the servicing of the galleys.

Depending on which handling agents are available at the alternates, Aer Lingus may not have a handling agreement in place with that company, or agreements in place for the payment of landing fees and all the other associated costs, and no Aer Lingus representative at the airfield.

If they go to an airfield that they already use, then it's an extra flight, which can be dealt with by the existing services and arrangements, there are all the necessary items of machinery, catering stocks and everything else that's needed to make the operation work.

A modern airliner can't just arrive somewhere, throw the passengers off, reload and go, there are a massive number of things that all have to happen in a very defined order and sequence for the operation to be successful.

That's why they sometimes go to a place that seems to be very good for the airline, and not so good for the passengers, because to go elsewhere could result in the aircraft being out of service for an unacceptably long period of time, which modern scheduling just does not allow for. The usage, and other factors mentioned are not the decision of the crew, in most cases, it's the bean counters that are making the decisions, and cost/profit implications are very high on the scale of consideration these days.

If for some reason the aircraft develops a technical problem (as has happened today in Rome, a tyre burst at some stage, and the aircraft had to night stop as spare wheels are not immediately available) there have to be engineers available that can deal with the specific type of aircraft

The list could be longer, but hopefully, the things already mentioned give some indication of the complexity of an airline operation, and help to explain why sometimes things are done the way they are.

Steve

YogiBoy

http://www.flightradar24.com/index.php?fa=1&heightmaxunit=ft&heightminunit=ft&speedmaxunit=knots&speedminunit=knots&airplfil=ryr&airplfiltype=callsign

That flight is from Gran Canaria, and finally veering off from course for Dublin and going to Cork - touchdown in 20m. Finally I'm off to bed

WallyGUFC

There's no way the West got it worse than Dublin. There's only been 3 inches here and it hasn't snowed since Friday. I know people are going mad at ME for this but even if the DAA knew this was coming would they have been able to do anything? Also, why don't they fly during the night and why not divert more flights to Shannon/Cork/Belfast/Knock?

highlydebased

Irish Steve wrote: »

They go to the airport that is best for the situation, for all sorts of good reasons, none of which are related to the flight crew. The airport they go to has to have the capability to handle the aircraft, which in Aer Lingus case means specialised equipment that can offload the baggage containers, and transport them to the baggage hall. They also have to have the right equipment to be able to push the aircraft off stand, and to be able to get passengers on and off the aircraft.

Many of the Eastern European airports are more accustomed to handling soviet bloc aircraft, which have completely different requirements to the Airbus.

Depending on the area, the aircraft may not have the necessary data to allow the crew to operate into the other available airports in the area.

If they go to a non standard airport for the airline, the catering suppliers at that airport will not have the necessary items to allow the servicing of the galleys.

Depending on which handling agents are available at the alternates, Aer Lingus may not have a handling agreement in place with that company, or agreements in place for the payment of landing fees and all the other associated costs, and no Aer Lingus representative at the airfield.

If they go to an airfield that they already use, then it's an extra flight, which can be dealt with by the existing services and arrangements, there are all the necessary items of machinery, catering stocks and everything else that's needed to make the operation work.

A modern airliner can't just arrive somewhere, throw the passengers off, reload and go, there are a massive number of things that all have to happen in a very defined order and sequence for the operation to be successful.

That's why they sometimes go to a place that seems to be very good for the airline, and not so good for the passengers, because to go elsewhere could result in the aircraft being out of service for an unacceptably long period of time, which modern scheduling just does not allow for. The usage, and other factors mentioned are not the decision of the crew, in most cases, it's the bean counters that are making the decisions, and cost/profit implications are very high on the scale of consideration these days.

If for some reason the aircraft develops a technical problem (as has happened today in Rome, a tyre burst at some stage, and the aircraft had to night stop as spare wheels are not immediately available) there have to be engineers available that can deal with the specific type of aircraft

The list could be longer, but hopefully, the things already mentioned give some indication of the complexity of an airline operation, and help to explain why sometimes things are done the way they are.

Steve

Unless you planned flying deep into Russia, the Soviet Bloc comment holds little relevance, its also generally untrue in this day and age.

Also catering is generally irrelevant, most people will just be glad to get home.

YogiBoy

Sorry that RY flight from Gran Canaria has overflown Cork to land in Shannon. Good night

wonderfulname

WallyGUFC wrote: »

I know people are going mad at ME for this but even if the DAA knew this was coming would they have been able to do anything?

I'm not at all mad at you, I do however disagree - DAA could have better planned for a scenario where 40,000 people were stranded in its airport.

ro_chez

wonderfulname wrote: »

I'm not at all mad at you,

lol...this forum has had a massive dose of retardation in recent days!

Must be the cold

wonderfulname

ro_chez wrote: »

lol...this forum has had a massive dose of retardation in recent days!

Must be the cold

Lol crap, try tiredness, bloody airport.

dobsdave

Two diverted Aer Lingus flights from Poland, landing in Belfast shortly.
First of many maybe

YogiBoy

• EI363 From : Warsaw, Fryderyk Chopin (WAW)
• To: Dublin, Dublin (DUB)
• from http://www.flightradar24.com - showing it is approaching Grimsby just now, I guess for Belfast (but offchance Dublin). Dont see any other EI Good night

scorpioishere

wonderfulname wrote: »

Another front line story, I don't think people realise how ridiculous it was out there tonight.

I was meant to be flying out with ryanair at 4.10, after 5 gate changes and 3 different projected delays we were herded onto a plane at 5pm, it actually hurt to walk in the conditions outside at this point.
The plane did not move, it was not de-iced. We were told to get back off at approx 19.45, we were told nothing other than that the airport was closing.

When we got inside we found that every bloody ryanair flight that was due to leave in the hour or so we were had gone through the exact same thing, and every single passenger had been sent back into the airport at exactly the same time. The gangway was pretty much as crowded as a mosh pit. DAA were penning us in from the front, letting everyone out about 20 at a time - every time they let people through the crowd surged forward in anticipation, as crowds do, and slowly everything got a little more claustrophobic. Passport control was the same, finally the guards injected a little common sense and managed to clear it, opening service corridors to us.

The scene at the front of the airport was quite interesting I must say, firstly Ryanair had suddenly seen fit to shut up shop and leave. Airlingus, who had treated their passengers pretty fairly in not sitting them on a runway for the craic, had staff out helping DAA with information and crowd control - they were very proactive in making sure people got accommodation and even gave out meal vouchers to their customers. There was not a single Ryanair employee in the building.
DAA had been given the line "Ryanair customer service is now closed, please go online to rebook your flight", something which was, at the time, impossible - and entirely because of Ryanair.

As far as I can see Ryanair and DAA managed that situation absolutely appallingly, and that twat O'Leary should shut up before people start pointing out exactly what Ryanair were up to.

If you really hate Ryanair why do you travel with them? You better choose another airline where you will better service.

Redsunset

Well what was the fecking big surprize with the constant snow for Dublin yesterday,especially the airport.Sure there was a good north easterly flow and that simply created never ending snow streamers for most of the day and night,surely Met Eireann could have foreseen this,but obviously not.

Here's A satellite image for noon yesterday,i've drawn a red line beside the flow.

dobsdave

YogiBoy wrote: »

• EI363 From : Warsaw, Fryderyk Chopin (WAW)
• To: Dublin, Dublin (DUB)
• from http://www.flightradar24.com - showing it is approaching Grimsby just now, I guess for Belfast (but offchance Dublin). Dont see any other EI Good night

Other was from Krakow, both landed in Belfast.
Passengers transfered by bus to Dublin.

shrapnel222

anyone know what the situation is like out there today?

TDOie

shrapnel222 wrote: »

anyone know what the situation is like out there today?

Just got back from dropping off my girlfriend to her flight. We queued for 3 hours to checkin. Every flight is delayed by about an hour. She got on her flight and flew off about 50 minutes later than expected.

I imagine it'll be packed all day. A lot of pissed off people not getting home for Christmas.

shrapnel222

TDOie wrote: »

Just got back from dropping off my girlfriend to her flight. We queued for 3 hours to checkin. Every flight is delayed by about an hour. She got on her flight and flew off about 50 minutes later than expected.

I imagine it'll be packed all day. A lot of pissed off people not getting home for Christmas.

great stuf, thanks a mil. i'll stock up on sambos and crisps before i head over there!!

atgate

Not sure how I got home really. Was in Gran Canaria yesterday and Aer Lingus cancelled our flight. No more flights till the 26th. Hung around the airport for a few hours as there was a possibility of a Ryanair flight or charter. Ryanair was full and it didn't look like the charter was getting out of Dublin. Then a flight to Cork popped up on the screen (EI don't fly Las Palmas to Cork). Turned out that Aer Lingus had diverted a plane from Lanzarote with some free seats to pick up whoever was at Las Palmas.

Got into Cork at 1am and arrived by bus in Dublin at around 4am. In bed by 5am. Hats off to Aer Lingus for getting us home (although their ground handling agents, Iberia in LPA were about as useful as a chocolate teapot).

NickDrake

redsunset wrote: »

Well what was the fecking big surprize with the constant snow for Dublin yesterday,especially the airport.Sure there was a good north easterly flow and that simply created never ending snow streamers for most of the day and night,surely Met Eireann could have foreseen this,but obviously not.

Here's A satellite image for noon yesterday,i've drawn a red line beside the flow.

Yet Met Eireann. could see the amount on the way.

Can they get it anymore wrong.

warning for 2-5 cm. :rolleyes:

cobijones

Brothers flight has just been canceled from London :mad:

Anybody got any suggestions as to how to get him home today or tomorrow? By an means possible!

Any suggestions greatly appreciated

shrapnel222

cobijones wrote: »

Brothers flight has just been canceled from London :mad:

Anybody got any suggestions as to how to get him home today or tomorrow? By an means possible!

Any suggestions greatly appreciated

train to hollyhead, then ferry to dublin