Now its Dublin's turn again....

Tenger · 20-12-2010 08:08PM #1

Forget about the diversions into DUB. Airport closed from 1745 for all flights. Not expected to open till 2130. All inbounds heading elsewhere. Apparently one of the BA B747s was about to push when it closed. Departures page shows both BA B747, a AA B777 and the Air Canada B767 still not departed.

http://www.dublinairport.com/gns/at-the-airport/latest-news/10-12-20/17_45_Flight_Operations_Suspended_At_Dublin_Airport.aspx

Just to add to the good post from Lord Lucan below. I now have an inch of snow on my balcony. Thats quite a bit in less than 2 hours, especially when it wasn't expected till tonight/tomorrow.

Cavehill Red · 20-12-2010 08:10PM

Shocking lack of info from the airport.
Website down for hours. No info disseminated via RTE. And passengers received no announcement, just a sudden appearance of CANCELLED next to all flights on the departures board.
Heads are expected to roll at Heathrow, where at least they kept passengers informed of delays and cancellations. No doubt the clowns at the DAA will get big pensions for their disdain of customers.

lord lucan · 20-12-2010 08:24PM

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Shocking lack of info from the airport.
Website down for hours. No info disseminated via RTE. And passengers received no announcement, just a sudden appearance of CANCELLED next to all flights on the departures board.
Heads are expected to roll at Heathrow, where at least they kept passengers informed of delays and cancellations. No doubt the clowns at the DAA will get big pensions for their disdain of customers.

I'm not at the airport but heard about the closure on their site and on Newstalk. Looks like an unpredicted dump of snow caught them out(and everyone else on the roads going by AA roadwatch).

I'm not quite sure what the airports can do in these circumstances. Some of the criticism of LHR has been ott,politicians using it to score points. I was out in the airport a couple of weeks ago when they had to close due to snow. It was coming down so hard that there was no way they could physically clear it all. There was a huge convoy clearing 28 that day and yet by the time they had one side done the other had been covered again.

Bottom line is if it's not safe you can't fly. People are desperate to get away and want the boundaries pushed to suit them. They'd be the first to point the finger at the DAA/IAA if an aircraft landed and skidded off a runway/taxiway. Then there's all the ramp ops that can't function properly in these conditions. You'd need a vast operation to maintain the whole airport,something that's just not viable.

Cavehill Red · 20-12-2010 08:33PM

lord lucan wrote: »

I'm not at the airport but heard about the closure on their site and on Newstalk. Looks like an unpredicted dump of snow caught them out(and everyone else on the roads going by AA roadwatch).

That's strange because all day their website has been showing this:

lord lucan wrote: »

I'm not quite sure what the airports can do in these circumstances.

Tell passengers?

lord lucan · 20-12-2010 08:44PM

Their site was ok when i seen it earlier,may well have crashed under the weight of traffic on it once word of closure was out.

All the DAA can do as far as i can see is notify the media outlets and let them know what's going on and to pass the info on.

Cavehill Red · 20-12-2010 08:49PM

What time did you view their website? It's been defunct all afternoon, long before the airport shut.
And what could they do? Using the tannoys in the actual airport surely wouldn't go amiss?
Making announcements to passengers waiting to board? Getting some of those remedials in the horrid pink sweatshirts to mingle and y'know, INFORM people that the airport was closing?
Instead, they just switch the departures board to CANCELLED and watch the stampede for the aircoaches out the door.
Despicable failure of their duties and responsibilities.

Tenger · 20-12-2010 08:49PM

Cavehill Red wrote: »

That's strange because all day their website has been showing this:

Well I've been looking at it every 30 minutes since 5pm and it has been fine for me.

EDIT: Don't have any screen grabs, and have to admit that I was mistaken about every 30 mins. Thinking about it I have looked at it 4 times times since 5pm. Obviously once when I posted the link about, about 40 mins before that, I also checked it at 1810 after hearing about the closure on facebook, and then just after you posted about it being down. So figure 1810, 1840, 1920, and 1940 and just now at 2005.
So apologies for the mis-info.

I have been reading another site concerning the closure and used the site to check info posted on that site (A.Net)

I think the reasons for the lack of info may be due to the speed at which the snow dump happened. Usually when they are expecting snow they can warm airlines and pax that the may close in 60-90 minutes. SO airlines can then try to push certain flights out or cancel. I thought this snow was expected later tonight or tomorrow morning so the fall took them on the hop.
Not trying to exonerate the DAA, just giving an alternate explanation.

Cavehill Red · 20-12-2010 08:51PM

Tenger wrote: »

Well I've been looking at it every 30 minutes since 5pm and it has been fine for me.

Screengrab, please?

lord lucan · 20-12-2010 09:00PM

I'm not 100% sure of the protocol but afaik the way it works is the Airport informs the airlines that the aerodrome will close and the airlines inform passengers of the situation,whether that be through tannoy announcements or verbally at the check-in desks before check-in occurs.

tricky D · 20-12-2010 09:03PM

DAA inform airlines when they expect to be up and running. Airlines check the other end for each flight. So it's the airlines who have the required info on both ends of flights, not the DAA who only have one end. The message to get in touch with your carrier has been on just about every news bulletin I've heard or seen in the last while.

Airport site is up just fine.

Cavehill Red · 20-12-2010 09:05PM

tricky D wrote: »

Airport site is up just fine.

Then you won't mind showing me a current screengrab?

N7777G · 20-12-2010 09:12PM

I was at the airport at 4pm and crews were busy de-icing runway 28 and flights were using runway 34 until the de-icing was complete.

However, snow started to fall quite heavily and within ten minutes it was a total white out.

So I thinks its unrealistic to be looking for someone to blame, Act of God etc...

Some pics for today:- http://www.flickr.com/photos/eigjb/tags/20122010/

Cavehill Red · 20-12-2010 09:14PM

It's an act of God that no one informed passengers that the airport was closing?
Did the Almighty strike them down dumb or something?

CiaranC · 20-12-2010 09:15PM

tricky D wrote: »

Airport site is up just fine.

No it isnt

Andrew42 · 20-12-2010 09:16PM

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Then you won't mind showing me a current screengrab?

I've just looked at the site and it's fine, I might get a ban but are you being a bit of a knob?

Tenger · 20-12-2010 09:18PM

Did it occur to you that someone in the DAA may have decided that the quickest way to inform everyone was to change all the departure boards to CANCELLED?

The announcement can't be heard in all parts of the airport. (The bars and airline lounges for example) And asking the airlines to tell there passengers may have ended up taking too long.

Have just looked departures twice since 2010. Tried using PRTSC bu doesn't seem to do anything.

ro2 · 20-12-2010 09:21PM

Listening to Dublin ATC and runway is closed now until 23:00.

spoonface · 20-12-2010 09:22PM

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Then you won't mind showing me a current screengrab?

Here's one I took at 20.20 just now:

lord lucan · 20-12-2010 09:24PM

Cavehill Red · 20-12-2010 09:27PM

spoonface wrote: »

Here's one I took at 20.20 just now:

Still coming up blank for me. And I've two friends in Belfast and the US I asked to check saying the same thing.

therecklessone · 20-12-2010 09:27PM

They have also kept their twitter feed updated with news on the closures:

https://twitter.com/#!/DublinAirport

pclancy · 20-12-2010 09:32PM

Andrew don't be a knob.

andy_g · 20-12-2010 09:34PM

Andrew42 wrote: »

I've just looked at the site and it's fine, I might get a ban but are you being a bit of a knob?

Andrew42.

You recieve a warning for calling someone a know I.E personal abuse.

Less of that on the forum please. Also take a read of the charter and site rules.

Taken from the charter.

No personal abuse- This is not your playground. Have respect for others and expect the same in return

Tenger · 20-12-2010 09:50PM

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Still coming up blank for me. And I've two friends in Belfast and the US I asked to check saying the same thing.

Fully understood and don't want to be calling you (or your mates in the same predicament) a liar.......but can you accept that some of us are able to access the flight info?

I'm not very technical but seems quite strange that 4 of ye can't access it and at least 4 people on boards can.......

Back OT: 2015 update now saying closed till 2300
However it seems up to 20cm may fall in the next couple of hours. SO if it does I think DUB will be closed till the morning......

Cavehill Red · 20-12-2010 09:54PM

There's clearly something up with the website. It's certainly strange that some people can see it and others not. But you've heard from another poster on this thread confirming what I'm saying. I've no reason to make it up.

No one can be blamed for the weather, and safety is the primary concern. Everyone realises that.

What's not acceptable is the lack of care towards passengers demonstrated today. It's inconsiderate, lazy and shoddy.

spoonface · 20-12-2010 09:55PM

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Still coming up blank for me. And I've two friends in Belfast and the US I asked to check saying the same thing.

The truth of the matter is that the internet is not one single experience for everyone on the internet at a point in time. e.g. certain routes can be down when faults have occurred so something could be visible from here but not from the US, or equally a timeout could occur for someone further away form the website server. So Cavehill if you understand this, then you'll understand we're not a bunch of liars here on the forum, we're simply reporting different experiences to what you have experienced.

pclancy · 20-12-2010 10:03PM

Cavehill Red wrote: »

There's clearly something up with the website. It's certainly strange that some people can see it and others not. But you've heard from another poster on this thread confirming what I'm saying. I've no reason to make it up.

No one can be blamed for the weather, and safety is the primary concern. Everyone realises that.

What's not acceptable is the lack of care towards passengers demonstrated today. It's inconsiderate, lazy and shoddy.

Its just the way it goes sometimes with traffic and routing etc, I just browsed it fine for a minute until just before I came back to boards it had timed out on the homepage.

Just listening to the live ATC feed and tower confirmed to a flight that 2300 is the planned reopen time at the moment. Crews out on the runway right now.

Plowman · 20-12-2010 10:04PM

This post has been deleted.

lord lucan · 20-12-2010 10:08PM

Plowman wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I'm using Chrome myself and has been fine. Good advice,never thought of the browser!:o

Tenger · 20-12-2010 10:13PM

Was just outside for less than a minute. In South Dublin, its bucketing down. Currently over 2 inches on my balcony. Seem to be heavier clumpy snow rather than the powder we got 10 days ago. this might make it harder to shift from runways?

Plowman wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I tried IE about 10 mins ago was fine. Had only been using Chrome up till then.

Off topic: onlt started using chrome about 2 months ago. Its a breath of fresg air after problems with IE.

Mr.Crinklewood · 20-12-2010 10:17PM

ro2 wrote: »

Listening to Dublin ATC and runway is closed now until 23:00.

Whats the link again Sir?

Now its Dublin's turn again....

Comments