Bristol: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

[TheLocalYokel]

The evening bmi regional is showing it's operating to Rostock instead of Hamburg and the return Hamburg is cancelled. Hamburg Airport website shows numerous cancellations there so there must be some problem at that end. Well done bmi regional for getting as near to Hamburg as possible with the outbound.

Power Blackout at HAM has caused all cancellations and delays. Airport estimated to reopen at 8pm local this evening.
I have had a little chuckle at BRS departure page has the flight operating to 'Rockstock' ha ha.

So it is. I hadn't noticed that. Rostock Airport isn't very busy - 290,000 passengers in 2017 - but it has a 2,500 metre long runway. bmi regional is one of five airlines that uses Rostock with its services to Munich and Stuttgart.

Two or three years ago I travelled to Rostock for the day from Hamburg by train. From memory it wasn't a long journey - about 40 minutes or so. It's a charming old city to visit.

I've criticised bmi regional a lot recently so it's good top be able to report something positive. They could easily have cancelled the outbound Hamburg as well as the inbound but chose not to. Very well done for that.

 

[superking]

I think the flight information boards should be up to the level on the boards in the airport. The website boards are very important for people picking up pax or dropping off The boards on the website impacts more people than people at the airport.
So come on BRS get youre act togeather with the website regards dep/arr imformation. As they are at the moment they would be better with no imformation,as imformation being displayed do not give enough imformation or true imformation.Its not rocket science to sort it out.

 

[superking]

Well done BMIR for more or less doing a full flight programme for sunday 3rd of june. Lets hope this is the start of less problems there has been of late.It was also good to see Hamburg flight diverted to Rostock,rather than cancelled. Just a shame Hamburg had airport problems with a power cut.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Monday 4 June 2018

Whisper it but it seems to be the case now - no cancellations today, the first day for at least a week.

113 airline departures plus five Airbus and BAE corporate shuttle flights.

Thomas Cook's TCX1063 from Mahon seems to have a problem though. Scheduled arrival time was 1110 this morning but it's estimating 0035 on Tuesday.

According to Mayfly the flight is operated by the third-party A320. Its next assignment to Zakynthos at lunchtime reportedly departed so they must have found a replacement aircraft for that. The two based A321s were committed all day so something else must have been rustled up.

 

[alphagolf]

Ground Handling

Bristol doesn't seem to be the only airport suffering at the moment, Stansted Airport's twitter feed is also awash with disgruntled passengers waiting for steps/buses or baggage. The airport advises that ground handling is the responsibility of the individual airline, but has mentioned it is working with its airline partners to resolve the situation.

 

[Marko1]

I note that the airport has started making it clear on social media where the responsibility lies with the waiting times in arrivals. It's about time too.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

I've noticed recently a slight change in response on Twitter where the Airport 'apologises on behalf of Swissport/Menzies who handle XX Airline
The information given to people is vital though and it often looks like that information isn't made available until after some time and everyone is already disgruntled. Some kind of live monitoring of delivery times could be useful so peiple are at least kept updated in advance. As much as it's the responsibility of the handling agent to cover the flights, the Airlines and Airport should work all together as well to maintain a realistic schedule. Having all your flights depart and arrive in peaks is no good for staff planning. Let's not forget UKBF faced this in recent years which probably masked baggage delivery waits. This has vastly improved since the extra e-gates.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I've noticed recently a slight change in response on Twitter where the Airport 'apologises on behalf of Swissport/Menzies who handle XX Airline
The information given to people is vital though and it often looks like that information isn't made available until after some time and everyone is already disgruntled. Some kind of live monitoring of delivery times could be useful so peiple are at least kept updated in advance. As much as it's the responsibility of the handling agent to cover the flights, the Airlines and Airport should work all together as well to maintain a realistic schedule. Having all your flights depart and arrive in peaks is no good for staff planning. Let's not forget UKBF faced this in recent years which probably masked baggage delivery waits. This has vastly improved since the extra e-gates.

Good points there. Snag is that airports such as Bristol rely on based aircraft for the most part and as we know this leads to waves of departures and arrivals throughout the day.

Taking Monday as an example, 20 airline departures are scheduled for the 50 minutes from 0600 and another eleven between 0700 and 0730 - all A320 size in the latter period except for one A319. Five departures are scheduled for 0700 alone.

That's going to put a lot of pressure on handling staff and with only six departures scheduled between 0800 and 1000 (there are also nine arrivals in that period) it shows clearly the peaks and troughs of the handling business.

 

[kraktoa]

Italian ATC have called a 24 hr strike action tomorrow. There will no doubt be an impact at BRS.

Todays BMIr from Brussels shown as cancelled

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Italian ATC have called a 24 hr strike action tomorrow. There will no doubt be an impact at BRS.

Todays BMIr from Brussels shown as cancelled

I posted an item yesterday in the Ryanair Airlines thread in which they said they had already cancelled some flights on Friday because of this latest strike. I didn't have time to check which ones but as you say some of the BRS flights will undoubtedly feature.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Italian ATC have called a 24 hr strike action tomorrow. There will no doubt be an impact at BRS.

Todays BMIr from Brussels shown as cancelled

Looking at Mayfly for tomorrow I can find only five Italian departures:

0600 easyJet to Catania
0730 easyJet to Pisa
1210 easyJet to Rome FCO
1455 easyJet to Venice MP
1725 TUI to Naples

Currently the BRS website departure page is showing 'check-in' or 'bag drop' for all five flights.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Thursday 7 June 2018

bmi regional Dusseldorf rotation cancelled.

Also as kraktoa mentioned in an earlier post today the morning bmi regional flight from Brussels (BM2002) also cancelled, although the earlier outbound (BM2001) is shown as operated.

 

[kraktoa]

Can Bristol class itself as a slot airport? What does it mean and does it differ from other airports or does it give it certain privileges?

 

[Severn]

A landing slot, takeoff slot, or airport slot is a right granted by an airport owner which allows the slot holder to schedule a landing or departure during a specific time period.

Landing slots are allocated in accordance with guidelines set down by the IATA's Worldwide Airport Slots Group. All airports worldwide are categorized as either
Level 1 (Non-Coordinated Airport)
Level 2 (Schedules Facilitated Airport - where demand is close to capacity and coordination is needed to ensure the demand does not go above the capacity. Airlines that operate into level 2 airport do not accrue historic precedence)
Level 3 (Coordinated Airport - where demand exceeds the capacity and due to the high volume of demand, there is no opportunity to re-schedule flights on a voluntary basis).

Bristol Airport has been designated as Level 3 by the Secretary of State with effect from S18. Level 3 is effective at BRS for Summer seasons only and period 2300-0659L. Daytime period and Winter season remains Level 2.

In the UK, only the following airports are Level 3:

• Birmingham Airport
• Bristol Airport
• London City Airport
• London Gatwick Airport
• London Heathrow Airport
• London Luton Airport
• London Stansted Airport
• Manchester Airport

Level 2 airports in the UK are ABZ, BHD, BFS, EMA, EDI, GLA, LBA, LPL, NCL & SOU
Level 1 airports in the UK are BOH, CWL, DSA, MME, EXT & JER

 

[Jerry]

I'm surprised EDI is a Level 2 considering it's busier than BRS. I'd have thought it would be in the same bracket or the opposite way round.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

It's to do with BRS reaching its quota of allowed night flights. I don't know too much about it but I think the restriction was put in some time ago because of noise. I'm guessing places like EDI don't have that obstacle from local residents. It's part of the reason we've seen expansion recently so airlines can still operate during these night times. BRS are working to increase it but as it stands, once they're gone they're gone. It could deter extra based aircraft if they have to be back at base before 2300. No good really for a charter operator with 2 long ish sectors or a low cost that wants to maximise utilisation.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It's to do with BRS reaching its quota of allowed night flights. I don't know too much about it but I think the restriction was put in some time ago because of noise. I'm guessing places like EDI don't have that obstacle from local residents. It's part of the reason we've seen expansion recently so airlines can still operate during these night times. BRS are working to increase it but as it stands, once they're gone they're gone. It could deter extra based aircraft if they have to be back at base before 2300. No good really for a charter operator with 2 long ish sectors or a low cost that wants to maximise utilisation.

BRS has had a night noise quoto for many years. Coupled with it are restrictions on movements during the night noise quota period which is classed as 2330-0600 (the summer Level 3 slot co-ordination period is 2300-0700).

The night quota and movements restricted period is divided into summer and winter (ie BST and GMT).

In summer a maximum of 3,000 movements (take-offs and landings) is permitted and in winter 1,000. In addition, a maximum of 10,500 movements is permitted each calendar year between 0600-0700 and 2300-2330. The noise quota count limit is 1260 in summer and 900 in winter. Each aircraft is assigned a noise quota depending on how noisy it is.

There is though some leeway in that 10% of the noise quota if not used in one season can be carried over to the following season, and up to 10% of the next season's quota may be anticipated in the event of an overrun but that could result in penalties in the season after that. There are also additional provisions for dealing with delayed departures and early arrivals.

In summer 2016 there were 2704 night movements and a night noise quota of 1354 which is 94 above the permitted level. However, by borrowing 90 from the previous winter and four from the season to come, they were able to remain 'legal'. Looking back to the period from now to 2010 the highest winter noise quota taken up in any year was 120 - well short of the 900 limit. Summer is an increasing problem - hence the summer Level 3 slot co-ordination to try to help with management.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Friday 8 June 2018

easyJet EZY6185 to Rome Fiumicino at 1210 and return as EZY6186 at 1805 cancelled*
easyJet EZY3361 from Venice Marco Polo at 1425 and return as EZY3362 at 1455 cancelled*
bmi regional BM1827 to Frankfurt at 1630 and return as BM1828 at 2215 cancelled
easyJet EZY6045 to Palma at 1945 cancelled. Nothing shown for the return EZY6046 at 0055 Saturday**
easyJet EZY430 from Edinburgh at 2015 shown as diverted; also shown with an eta of 2115

* no doubt victims of General Strike in Italy today. BRS fared better than I feared would be the case
** this rotation was also cancelled on Friday last week

Addendum 2155 8.6.18

What's the matter with the BRS website pages? easyJet EZY6045 to Palma that was earlier shown as cancelled is now shown as departed. EZY430 from EDI has now arrived at BRS so whether it really was diverted somewhere en route is anyone's guess.

 

[kraktoa]

French ATC strike again this weekend at Marseille.

Flights showing delays. The summer is truly here.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

French ATC strike again this weekend at Marseille.

Flights showing delays. The summer is truly here.

Just the one cancellation today it seems.

easyJet EZY6107 to Marseille at 1345 returning at 1810 as EZY6108.