Bristol: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

[TheLocalYokel]

Charter carriers won't cancel because of the package element in getting customers to their destination, home or abroad. There have been instances where is no other option. This could ve extensive weather disruption that completely wrecks the program and theres no alternative carriers that can be chartered in. Its very rare. With Tour operators it is still a package so I think most would look at alternatives to get their customers where they need to be. For example it could be that EZY don't have alternatives but TUI holidays could source something with another carrier.

Having once almost always used packages with tour operators for many years for European holidays (from the 1970s onwards), I've only used a tour company's own aircraft once since 2007 - that was Thomas Cook to Fuerteventura in 2015. I've used the TUI group a number of times from BRS since 2007 but they used easyJet because they themselves did not fly from BRS to Geneva (it was a summer holiday) and Brussels Airlines for BRU (for a Bruges city break).

Given what seems to be an increasing number of cancellations these days by easyJet and Ryanair (I'm not blaming them because so often the reasons are outside their control) I feel happier if the aircraft is one of the tour company's own for the reasons stated in my previous post which you broadly confirm. That said, we are looking at Switzerland again next summer so we might have to take a chance with easyJet if we use a package from TUI.

There was discussion on Dried Fruit about cancellations by easyJet with no notice on the day. As I know her from years ago (when she was the AA Sales Manager in the year 'dot') I dropped Ali Gayward an email and had the following response within 18 hours.....

"
Lovely to hear from you and I do hope that you are well.

You are probably aware that there have been huge levels of disruption across Europe once again this summer, leading to widespread delays and cancellations. This disruption has been caused by weather, and more significantly industrial action, especially in France. So far this year, French ATC strikes have increased by 300 per cent versus 2017. Last month, the French Senate confirmed that France alone is responsible for 33 per cent of flight delays in Europe.

The resulting delays across all of our network end up with crews out of base, working into their days off, and we use up all of our available standby crew and aircraft.

However, that said, we recognise that we rely on our ground handling agents and our app, to ensure customers are kept up to date about the status of their flights. The app should always contain the most up to date information, whilst informing crew at the gates, for example, can be a more manual process. At times of such widespread disruption, the cause of an individual flight’s disruption, when many other services are also impacted, can become unclear, especially given often a situation which is changing rapidly as spare crew or aircraft are being sought.

However, I will pass on your comments to our base team in Manchester and request that all is done in future to ensure that the most accurate information available is shared.

Kind regards,

Ali"

Many thanks. It's an increasingly difficult juggling act with so much industrial action going on. Invariably, when an easyJet or Ryanair flight is cancelled at BRS some of the regular posters to the local paper comment page come up with the usual, '"what do you expect if you fly with cowboys?" or "fly with a proper airline next time" or "go from a proper airport". You get the drift.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Monday 23 July 2018
Tomorrow's first Ryanair Dublin rotation of the day is cancelled - it's a DUB-based aircraft and crew and Ryanair's Irish-based pilots are taking their latest day of strike action tomorrow.

The first Ryanair DUB-BRS-DUB rotation of the day operated in the end despite the BRS arrivals/departures pages yesterday showing its cancellation today.

There were no cancellations at all today.👍

 

[superking]

I read on dried plum that the Ryanair pilot strikes are Ireland to the UK routes only.
Later this week various Ryanair bases pilots are striking around Europe.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Friday 26 July 2018

Just one cancellation today.

flybmi BM1881 to Paris CDG at 0700 returning as BM1882 at 1015.

The two later flybmi CDG rotations operated so hopefully displaced passengers could have been accommodated on the later flights although the delay would not be welcome.

 

[kraktoa]

Friday 26 July 2018

Just one cancellation today.

flybmi BM1881 to Paris CDG at 0700 returning as BM1882 at 1015.

The two later flybmi CDG rotations operated so hopefully displaced passengers could have been accommodated on the later flights although the delay would not be welcome.

I guess these days the only people booking flights on flyBMI are those who rack up compensation claims or like staying in hotels.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I guess these days the only people booking flights on flyBMI are those who rack up compensation claims or like staying in hotels.

They don't seem to be improving their reliability, although today isn't too bad.

The only flybmi cancellation shown on the BRS website is BM1804 from Aberdeen due at 1625. However, the website also shows BM9351 also due to arrive from Aberdeen at 1625 but there is no indication that it even operated.

All other flights to/from the airport seem to have operated albeit there are some delays this evening but they have etas. BRS seems to have been fortunate with the weather today so far. Reports on other aviation web sites report many cancellations in the south-east because of the weather.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

BH Air to Burgas sched departure 0925 is shown on FR24 as departing 0952 but the track then shows it reaching Kent before turning around and returning to BRS. Is this correct or one of those FR24 malfunctions?

 

[superking]

I see the British airways Florence rotation cancelled.

 

[Jerry]

BH Air to Burgas sched departure 0925 is shown on FR24 as departing 0952 but the track then shows it reaching Kent before turning around and returning to BRS. Is this correct or one of those FR24 malfunctions?

According to a post on social media it was a medical emergency.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

According to a post on social media it was a medical emergency.

Thanks, Jerry.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I see the British airways Florence rotation cancelled.

FR24 shows the inbound to BRS en route. E170 G-LCYG departed Florence 1441, arriving BRS 1540 (sched arrival 1225). BRS Arrivals web page showing 1510 eta.

When I checked the Florence Airport website a hour or two ago both FLR-BRS and BRS-FLR were shown as cancelled, so it's not just the BRS website that sometimes can't be relied upon.

 

[kraktoa]

I see the British airways Florence rotation cancelled.

Yep i was to be on this flight. Highly disappointed. Family holiday ruined as no alternatives from Bristol to Florence.

But what makes my blood boil is that the incoming flight was delayed by 3 hrs. I would have stayed 3 hrs in the airport than ruin a holiday.

Now the airport website shows the flight as .....go to departures. What does this mean. Did they announce online and on website for airport as flight cancelled and then reinstate it? Or is this just the stupid BRS screen glitch?

Would love to know where the florence flight went to?

 

[Jerry]

Yep i was to be on this flight. Highly disappointed. Family holiday ruined as no alternatives from Bristol to Florence.

But what makes my blood boil is that the incoming flight was delayed by 3 hrs. I would have stayed 3 hrs in the airport than ruin a holiday.

Now the airport website shows the flight as .....go to departures. What does this mean. Did they announce online and on website for airport as flight cancelled and then reinstate it? Or is this just the stupid BRS screen glitch?

Would love to know where the florence flight went to?

According to FR24 the aircraft from Florence landed at BRS at 15.44 yet it says the outbound is cancelled. Ao according to FR24 the aircraft is on the ground at BRS now.

 

[kraktoa]

If the flight actually goes to Florence alveit 3 hrs late without me and my family that will be a poor show by BA. As we were advised on app that flight was cancelled. Unless they will use the aircraft for some other flight from another airport.....but again why do that?

 

[Jerry]

If the flight actually goes to Florence alveit 3 hrs late without me and my family that will be a poor show by BA. As we were advised on app that flight was cancelled. Unless they will use the aircraft for some other flight from another airport.....but again why do that?

According to FR24 the aircraft is still there. There could be a problem with it or at Florence but i am only guessing so sorry I can't be more helpful

 

[kraktoa]

I think the florence flight was operated by a Luton crew. Delayed by 4 hrs so probably out of hours.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Yep i was to be on this flight. Highly disappointed. Family holiday ruined as no alternatives from Bristol to Florence.

But what makes my blood boil is that the incoming flight was delayed by 3 hrs. I would have stayed 3 hrs in the airport than ruin a holiday.

Now the airport website shows the flight as .....go to departures. What does this mean. Did they announce online and on website for airport as flight cancelled and then reinstate it? Or is this just the stupid BRS screen glitch?
Would love to know where the florence flight went to?

BRS arrivals page shows the inbound as 'Landed'. As you know, they never show the actual time of landing (or departure for that matter) but the expected arrival time was 1543 with, as Jerry said, FR24 showing the actual arrival time as 1544.

I looked at Pisa with easyJet which might be a poor second option but all outbound flights are sold out for the next four days from BRS.

If the flight actually goes to Florence alveit 3 hrs late without me and my family that will be a poor show by BA. As we were advised on app that flight was cancelled. Unless they will use the aircraft for some other flight from another airport.....but again why do that?

From what you write, it seems you were merely told the flight was cancelled via app with no explanation as to why. If that is so, it's very, very poor communication.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Saturday 28 July 2018

Apart from the uncertain status of the BACF Florence flight discussed in the recent posts today, the only other cancellation that I can find is:

easyJet EZY6075 to Alicante at 1945 returning as EZY6076 at 0115 (Sunday)

Incidentally, indications on the FLR website suggested that the BHX BACF rotation was cancelled today too. I've asked in the BHX forum if it was cancelled.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

BACF FLR-BRS

Someone asked about today's cancellation on the Dried Fruit. My alter ego did a bit more digging and came up with this.

Looking at FR24 E170 G-LCYG operated LCY-FLR three hours late this morning. It then operated FLR-BRS arriving at the latter at 1544 (sched arrival 1225). Instead of returning to FLR with Italy-bound passengers from BRS the flight is shown as cancelled.

All that is shown for the aircraft on FR24's aircraft flight history page is that it departed BRS at 1647 this afternoon with no destination shown. The page shows its next work as STN-FLR tomorrow morning so I'm assuming it went there from BRS.

The BRS website arrivals page shows the FLR-BRS as 'Arrived' but there is no information regarding its departure on the airport's departures page except the unhelpful note 'Go to Departures' which has been in place since this afternoon.

Could this have been a crew hours issue bearing in mind the late running of the earlier sectors?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Sunday 29 July 2018

Todays cancellations:

KLM Cityhopper KL1052 to Amsterdam at 1345 - the inbound KL1051 at 1315 is shown as operating. FR24 aircraft history page for the aircraft, E190 PH-EZK, shows no movement after it landed at BRS at lunchtime today - presumably a technical problem with the aircraft.

flybmi BM1837 to Hamburg at 1740 returning as BM1838 at 2135 - this is the third Sunday in succession that this rotation has been cancelled.