Birmingham: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

[Nethercote2019]

There are no arrivals or departure at EMA from midnight to 06-00
i assume runway repairs hence this is operating to/from BHX which I think it’s done previously

 

[Matt995]

nothing too exciting, but we should have an East Midlands diversion at around 01:00, TOM7719 from Arrecife, 738 G-TAWA, due to East Midlands planned runway closure.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

There's also a Star Air B767-200 (OY-SRM) due from Cologne at 01:45.

Kevin

 

[HPsauce]

Today's lunchtime Emirates B77W had a go around and is now holding off at 7,000ft. There was a squall at the time of the first approach, but all seems fine now. Very odd.

 

[jfy1999]

If I’m interpreting the METAR readings on FR24 correctly, they show crosswind gusts of 30KT.

SunExpress is diverting to Gatwick after several failed landing attempts but everything else has got in so far.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

This is a great weather website and will also show airport weather in an easier way to interpret than the METAR. It's called Windy..com. Just click on the little aeroplane icon at the bottom right, zoom in and click on an airport. A window will open showing the simplified METAR data.

Professional weather forecast

50+ weather layers, weather radar and satellite

www.windy.com

Kevin

 

[Karl C]

Between 6am and 7am this morning, only one aircraft departed BHX......it must've been pandemonium! Over on Twitter the airport almost blames the passengers for what is happening. They also say they have a classroom full of new recruits waiting to go. Dare I say that being in a classroom is no good for the passengers or the airport. Maybe the classroom should've been full a month or two before. But that would involve paying staff. Chicken and egg situation, but neither is paying off right now. Proper dreading the airport experience in two weeks. Bought fast track, but I've no idea how 'fast' that will be. Everybody seems to be in the same situation, so it's a suck it and see game. Any suggestions?

 

[thunderchild]

Hope it all calms down by June, if the situation remains like this I’ll be dreading it. Fortunately we’ve got a mid week, 7am departure so hopefully it’ll be quieter and at least the plane should be ready to go.

 

[Nethercote2019]

Fast track tickets will be in demand - but do they limit the number they sell ( I’m thinking why would they limit sales !) but fast track may not be fast if everyone uses it …

 

[rollo]

Went through BHX on 22/3 on a Tui cruise flight a complete shambles arrived at check in just after 7.00am for a 10.35 departure it took just under 2hrs. Security even longer completely jammed up only people going through were being called out by destination and funneled through fast track so that was seized up as well.

When we actually got to the security stations only two out of the fourteen were operating the staff were doing there best but were clearly loosing the battle.

Special credit to one gentleman who was stationed (deliberately?) where he received plenty of flack from passengers to put it mildly from extremely peeded off passengers. He answered firmly but politely that he fully agreed with the complaints and they were short-staffed but the operarators who were there were doing their best and suggested that passengers used their mobiles to bombard the passenger services department NOW with their complaints. He did a good job in diffusing to a degree the situation.

We arrived at the gate about 30/40 minutes after departure time which was no problem as the aircraft was practically half empty awaiting passengers. I noticed practically every departure was running late.

We awaited our retun journey on 6th April with trepidation and our worst fears seemed confirmed as our flight was 1 1/2 hrs late as were the Gatwick and Manchesters two flights.
Arrived at BHX 2hrs late and had to wait around 40minutes for Swissport to send someone to operate the airbrdge Immigration was a breeze (5 minutes) and baggage was on the carasol, so pretty good apart from being 2hrs late in the first place.

Being gluttons for punishment we are due through BHX again in 3 weeks time on our severall times covid cancelled trip to Gran Canaria with Jet2.
I've booked fast track!

 

[Karl C]

I believe fast track is limited to 50 pax an hour and cannot be booked on the day of departure. All bets are off if they're gonna use the lane for everyone else who's been held up. Seems like check-in is also a sticking point. Jet2 got all their flights away mostly on time today, can't say the same for Tui. TUI used to be,in my opinion, the best in the business. However that was when they were Thomson. Nowadays the choice is so slim with all the mergers and acquisitions and liquidations that have happened in the last 20 years. It's now Tui at a push, Jet2 never and I'll have a go at anyone else to see what they're like. But there aren't many 'anyone else's' any more.
Let's see what Tui offer to Lanzarote on the 25th April....looks like a Max at the mo. Give that a whirl lol

 

[rollo]

Karl.

I don't think I made myself myself too clear on the fast track situation. The normal paid for fast rack operated as normal and the passengers who were pulled from the regular que were fed in behind them from a separate line.Those who had paid were always allowed to the front.

Regarding your comments re Jet2 and Tui while we were waiting for the airbrdge one of the cabin crew remarked that JET2 always get priority amazing how effective having as much self handling as possible in house can be.

 

[tompo]

BHX is not alone regarding this situation. In Sydney, passengers have been held up for several hrs to go through security. Hundreds of missed flights and much more. The operator puts it down to ‘passenger inexperience’ and the CEO of QANTAS stated: “ passengers are not match fit”. We all know of the real reason and this will be resolved in a relatively short time in comparison with the 2 year hiatus just experienced.

 

[Matt995]

Fog in The South East caused a few problems on Goods Friday

TOM6463 738 G-TAWC from Arrecife diverted into BHX in the early hours from Exeter, after one failed attempt to land in Exeter, would have be a nice trip back by coach for the passengers.

and the outbound GR707 to Guernsey ATR72 G-ORAI was cancelled, due to fog in Guernsey, so is night stopping BHX, and hoping to try again Saturday morning!

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Fog in The South East caused a few problems on Goods Friday

TOM6463 738 G-TAWC from Arrecife diverted into BHX in the early hours from Exeter, after one failed attempt to land in Exeter, would have be a nice trip back by coach for the passengers.

If I had been a passenger on that flight, I'd rather wait on the aircraft until it positions back to EXT than face that coach journey. It appears that the aircraft departed BHX at 09:30 for a 32min flight back to EXT.

Kevin

 

[RichL]

They wouldn't have stuck them on a coach surely?

 

[Kevin Farnell]

I notice that on both Saturday and Sunday, Flybe experienced significant delays on their BHD - BHX service. Sundays BE419 was due to arrive at 21:00 but it's ETA is now Monday 00:21 (however, it's also listed on FR24 as having STA of 23:56). Not the best start for the airline. FR24 shows BE1WN (G-JECY, BHX - AMS) to have departed BHX at 11:21 (approx 1 hour late, but the return service is listed as 'unknown'. The same aircraft (G-JECY, BE416) departed BHX for BHD approx 3 hours 40mins late at 21:50.
I'm getting confused (particularly with some of FR24's dual listing of flights) and it's not a great start for Flybe.

Kevin

 

[Matt995]

I notice that on both Saturday and Sunday, Flybe experienced significant delays on their BHD - BHX service. Sundays BE419 was due to arrive at 21:00 but it's ETA is now Monday 00:21 (however, it's also listed on FR24 as having STA of 23:56). Not the best start for the airline. FR24 shows BE1WN (G-JECY, BHX - AMS) to have departed BHX at 11:21 (approx 1 hour late, but the return service is listed as 'unknown'. The same aircraft (G-JECY, BE416) departed BHX for BHD approx 3 hours 40mins late at 21:50.
I'm getting confused (particularly with some of FR24's dual listing of flights) and it's not a great start for Flybe.

Kevin

Amsterdam Airport has being having major issues with security and staff shortages, & has asked airlines to cancel flights, see attached link.

https://www.thenationalnews.com/wor...ks-airlines-to-cancel-flights-to-avoid-chaos/

This will effect Flybe especially daily with the Birmingham & East Midlands flights to Amsterdam on the same plane, so double the delay.

 

[hammerb32]

TOM2GE operating Thessaloniki - Cardiff appears to be diverting in

 

[Matt995]

TOM2GE operating Thessaloniki - Cardiff appears to be diverting in

it was actually the Birmingham based aircraft/flight TOM7157, just FR24 having the wrong flight details again!