Now its Dublin's turn again....

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 too sure why your frustration is all aimed at the DAA. I'm no big fan of the DAA, but in these circumstances, their duty is to provide safe passage for flights and facilities for passengers. It is not their duty to hand hold every passenger inconvenienced by the current weather situation. The Commission for Aviation Regulation, who regulate the airline industry, very clearly state that it is the duty of the Airlines to attend to inconvenienced passengers needs, not the DAA. You can verify that on their website.

Neither is it an obligation for the likes of RTE to disseminate information, it is a courtesy.

Whether, no pun intended, the DAA website is working for you or not, the advised route to take is to access the website of the airline involved.

When the airport reopens it does not necessarily mean flights will depart or arrive per the earlier schedule. Airlines can reroute aircraft in these situations in order get as many passengers to their destination as possible with the shortest amunt of flight time.

So I advise you to keep in touch as much as possible by any means possible with the airline you are dealing with. Essentially they will be the ones with the first hand information which is then passed onto the DAA and becomes second hand information.

IrishB.ie wrote: »

I'm not too sure why your frustration is all aimed at the DAA. I'm no big fan of the DAA, but in these circumstances, their duty is to provide safe passage for flights and facilities for passengers.

Because they run the airport. Of course they have a responsibility to inform passengers that they're closing it.

IrishB.ie wrote: »

Neither is it an obligation for the likes of RTE to disseminate information, it is a courtesy.

Actually, you'll find informing the public about transport cancellations falls under RTE's public broadcasting remit. But they can only work with the information they receive, of course.

IrishB.ie wrote: »

Whether, no pun intended, the DAA website is working for you or not, the advised route to take is to access the website of the airline involved.

And when the website is down for hours for many people, what then?

IrishB.ie wrote: »

When the airport reopens it does not necessarily mean flights will depart or arrive per the earlier schedule. Airlines can reroute aircraft in these situations in order get as many passengers to their destination as possible with the shortest amunt of flight time.

So I advise you to keep in touch as much as possible by any means possible with the airline you are dealing with. Essentially they will be the ones with the first hand information which is then passed onto the DAA and becomes second hand information.

You appear to be languishing under the misapprehension that I am a passenger. I'm not. I'm going nowhere (mind you, nor are any of the passengers.)
I was merely dropping off a relative at the airport.

IrishB.ie wrote: »

Showing all flights cancelled is the quickest most effecient way to disseminate information to passengers. As already mentioned here, a tannoy system in any airport does not always reach everyone it need to and with the volume of people at the airport, not everybody would hear it.

It's not an either/or. They could have done both. And much more besides.

IrishB.ie wrote: »

RTE would have received that information immediately. When they decide to inform the public is up to them.

I wonder when exactly RTE received the information given that they were running a live weather update online featuring all travel data, and the Dublin airport information didn't appear for some time afterwards.

IrishB.ie wrote: »

I assume that you are referring to the DAA website. You 'should' get relevent information from the airlines website that your relative is travelling with. Have you tried that?

Indeed. But one hardly trusts a site that not only states even after the time of scheduled take-off that the flight is good to go, but also gets the departure time of its own plane wrong.

IrishB.ie wrote: »

Actually, I presumed as you said. Dropping somebody off.

In which case, I'm not dealing with any airline, am I?

Had friends in Dublin Airport this evening, they tell me they were kept well informed about cancellations to their (seperate) flights and had no problem with the way they were handled.
Maybe they were just lucky?

Also, I was keeping an eye on the DAA site throughout the afternoon and I didn't have any issue viewing.

Cavehill Red wrote: »

I wonder when exactly RTE received the information given that they were running a live weather update online featuring all travel data, and the Dublin airport information didn't appear for some time afterwards.

Dublin Airport twitter feed updated before 6pm.

RTE travel and weather updates:

1756 All flights at Dublin Airport have been suspended due to heavy snowfall.

Flights expected to resume at 2130

6 One News included a piece reporting the closure.

breakingnews.ie:

20/12/2010 - 18:00:02
Flights have been suspended at Dublin Airport following heavy snowfalls today.

Snow and ice teams are working to clear the runway, taxiways and associated apron areas as quickly as possible.

Flight operations are expected to resume at around 9.30pm this evening.

Passengers are advised to consult with their airline or airline's website before travelling to the airport this evening.

Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/flights-suspended-at-dublin-airport-486396.html#ixzz18h7LfRxI

In short, stop digging.

Airport open again.

Al.

Cavehill Red.
Missed this earlier.
Cavehill Red if you wish to call airport staff remedials do it else where as this also can fall under the charter for airline bashing although be it the DAA.

You recieve a warning for you post in post 6.
Read the charter and stay civil.

Back open

To have a pop at any airport authority due to conditions out of their control is childish,In all the years that I worked for my airline even with weather conditions like we have at present the company flight would still go ahead with the prep&loading of the aircraft right up to departure time.
Even if the airport was closed the reason behind this is you could get a window were flights could depart,Many a time I have stood the crew down due to the destination airports being closed only for them to re open and I would have to get them from the hotel asap.
If only people knew what goes on behind the scenes in flight/airport operations just because the airport closes the rwy that does not mean I can go home:PFar from it as we plan contingencies.

cocoshovel wrote: »

Airport is to stay closed until at least 20:00 tonight. Just heard on live atc.

Closed until 08.00 this morning and with the snow falling again i'll be surprised if it re-opens at all tomorrow tbh.

Today at 12.30:

Possibly a very stupid question...

Do they ever "uncancel" a cancelled flight?

Tenger wrote: »

Reading elsewhere that the Dublin area received from 16cm-40cm of snow Monday night/Tuesday. (Dalkey had the 40cm)This compares to the 11cm received in LHR on Sat/Sun. I'm thinking the DAA did fine compared to BAA.

Probably stating the obvious here but the biggest difference there is the sheer size of LHR with it's runways,taxiways and aprons. It'd take a small army to keep it operational. Credit where credit's due,the DAA done well to get DUB operational from this morning. The guys out clearing the airfield never seemed to stop from what i could see,a thankless task in them conditions.

crisco10 wrote: »

Maybe hearsay but I heard LHR rejected an offer from the army to help!!!

Ironic if true!

Apparently true but my worry(and maybe the BAA's too) would be having a load of guys untrained in airfield ops driving heavy machinery around aircraft and airbridges in atrocious conditions.