Carnacalla wrote: » 747 inbound SNN. 19,000ft and decending. Stobart about to turn for approach, wind 240 degrees 40kts G 49kts.
marno21 wrote: Tonight's ET500, usually routing ADD-DUB-IAD, will be making a stopover in Shannon instead
rushfan wrote: » Both Ethiopians refuelled in Shanon last year too.
Noxegon wrote: I wonder if that will ever change. One quick look at Flightradar24 shows most of Europe is open as normal.
Wanderer78 wrote: » I'd rather it didn't, staff deserve holidays to
Noxegon wrote: Irish staff deserve a day off that airport staff in other countries don't get?
Noxegon wrote: » I wonder if that will ever change. One quick look at Flightradar24 shows most of Europe is open as normal.
JCX BXC wrote: » Very very far from open as normal. Some airlines simply not operating today, such as Ryanair and virtually all are operating a limited schedule. While we can 'afford' to stay closed, in the future I can simply see this not happening. We are becoming a multicultural society, filling with cultures who do not celebrate Christmas and sadly things will begin to open to cater for these people.
Fred Swanson wrote: » Is it fully open in the sense that a scheduled airline could operate a flight or is it only Fire and Rescue that are available? I know Shannon is required to stay open 24/7/365 as a diversionary airport for the north Atlantic.
fr336 wrote: » I have sympathy with both sides of the closing for Christmas argument but on balance just have this nagging feeling of "Wow, it's one day. 24 hours. Can society not just stop for one day? Do people have to be using services every day of the year?" People clearly wouldn't be able to cope if closures were extended to St Stephen's Day too.
JCX BXC wrote: » fr336 wrote: » I have sympathy with both sides of the closing for Christmas argument but on balance just have this nagging feeling of "Wow, it's one day. 24 hours. Can society not just stop for one day? Do people have to be using services every day of the year?" People clearly wouldn't be able to cope if closures were extended to St Stephen's Day too. If that was the tradition, then people would cope. Go back 80 years, little was open on a Sunday. Even in nowadays Germany, supermarkets are rarely open on a Sunday and you're often limited to petrol stations.
It's uneconomical to keep the airport open as there would be very few flights, Ryanair stop flying around 3pm on Chrstmas Eve and don't start again until about 1pm on St. Stephens Day, Aer Lingus also don't operate as many flights on either the 24th or 26th, their flight schedule is significantly paired back due to lack of demand, the same with Stobart, CityJet and BA, people just don't want to travel in great numbers over these days to warrant putting on flights, they'd be loss making. With that in mind, the DAA couldn't justify opening the Airport on the 25th just for the 5-6 airlines that might want to run flights (EK, EY, LH, DL, AA) if EI and FR et al all don't want to run their own flights, as they'd have to bring in a full set of workers to run the airport from security teams, baggage handlers, marshallers, ops teams, ATC, Fire Services, Fuellers, Checkin Staff, Engineers, de-icers, push back crews etc, and those 5 flights couldn't possibly cover the cost of bringing in all those staff, heating and lighting the terminals, lighting the airfield etc. If they offered to those airlines to open the airport on the 25th on the condition that the airlines paid all the costs I'm sure the airlines would balk at the idea, as there's no way there'd even be enough demand to fill their own flights profitably, never mind footing the bill for opening the terminals and airfield. You could bet your last euro if there was money to be made the airlines would be screaming out to have the airport open, but the numbers just don't add up. Aer Lingus and Ryanair have access to the figures and know how much it would cost to bring in people for the day. The comercial departments know even if there was enough demand to operate say 3-4 Heathrow flights, when you add in the cost of getting staff in to cover those three to four flights and turning the lights and heating on in the airport, it would be massively loss making. It just doesn't make economic sense to open the airport, it's nothing to do with tradition, religion or unions, just pure cold cash.
Fred Swanson wrote: Is it fully open in the sense that a scheduled airline could operate a flight or is it only Fire and Rescue that are available?
Fred Swanson wrote: » Even in Germany you find supermarkets open on a Sunday. Times have moved on.