THAI Cancels Flights To Snowbound UK

[webfact]

AVIATION

THAI cancels flights to snowbound UK

By The Nation

Thai Airways International on December21 yesterday cancelled flights from Bangkok to London because of adverse weather conditions at Heathrow Airport. It also announced it would increase domestic flights during the New Year season.

A limited number of flights are being allowed to operate to and from London. Therefore, priority for flight departures will be granted to airlines with passengers currently stranded at Heathrow.

For passenger safety and also in accordance with an advisory from London Heathrow airtraffic control, regularly scheduled flights will not operate.

THAI also announced that two additional flights would be operated on the London-Bangkok route to transport passengers from Heathrow.

The airline said the flights cancelled yesterday were TG916 and TG917 Bangkok-London. At the same time, two additional flights were to be operated yesterday from London to Bangkok; these were TG9119 and Tg9179.

THAI also operated additional flight TG9119 on Monday on the London-Bangkok route, which arrived in Bangkok yesterday, transporting 368 passengers on board a Boeing 747400 aircraft.

Passengers travelling to London are advised to keep abreast of the weather conditions.

The airline yesterday also announced an increase in domestic flight frequencies to meet passenger demands over the holiday period. THAI president Piyasvasti Amranand said it would increase frequencies to and from Chiang Mai and Krabi from December 30 to January 2 to facilitate increased passenger volume on these routes.

-- The Nation 2010-12-22

[asiawatcher]

Another good reason not to leave the LOS.

[Kernow86]

I read this on BBC News Online while sitting by the pool.

[Credo]

They need to clean up their act.  This is a major world airport and should be kept open except for the most horrible and dangerous weather.  

[londonthai]

just yesterday 5pm gmt the second runway was opened and today 2/3 of flights should be operating (yestarday it was only 1/3). Of course, there is a backlog of stranded passengers since saturday, because almost nothing was moving on sat-sun and very limited mon-tu - and serious problems expected to be cleared only during xmass time, when there are less flights.

I would think, that thai airways is trying to get away from the responsibility for the stranded passangers (provision or reimbursment for the lodge/food).

secondly, as weather in the uk is now unpredictable and worrisome (and even more so the menagement of the heathrow which are not able to deal with 10cm of snow since sat and yestarday refused government's offer to send army to help to clear runways and parking bays) thai air is taking very carefully it's future operations, as they did not announce when they will start to operate.

lucky me I did not book for my holidays with thai (they were a tad too expensive for me) and instead flying with jet air. Hope, they are not going to follow thai air way.

as to "snowbound UK" - saturday snow naturally almost disappeared by now in London and airports are operating reasonably well. The thread title is misleading, to suit thai airways cancellations

Edited December 22, 2010 by londonthai

[Bagwan]

They need to clean up their act. This is a major world airport and should be kept open except for the most horrible and dangerous weather.

Precisely. It is the most horrible and dangerous weather. Checked on the status of Frankfurt by the way? Or other European airports?

[Bagwan]

Two flights into Heathrow cancelled. Two extra returning flights laid on. How? Don't you need airplanes?

[londonthai]

they had some stranded airplains since saturday or send some from the other european airports or borrowed from some other airlines.

as the situation at the airports in all western europe is changing and there is a knock off effect on the other airports, so thousands of planes and crews are misplaced and have to be put back into use. The most affected is British Airways, as heathrow has major problems.

it's a common practice, in some minor airlines, to cancel flights on the economic ground, if there is not enough passengers both ways. As a reason they give "adverse weather". But it's not the case with thai air

Edited December 22, 2010 by londonthai

[monkfish]

A picture my parents sent me after the first snows.

I think they want to make me homesick.

[londonthai]

already this winter was named as the coldest on the record in the uk (since 1910), and more of this same to come. In england there was already -20C at some places.

people, mostly pensioners, are suffering from hypothermia, over 300 in an intensive care from flu and in those conditions there is a danger of flu epidemic.

pictures look great, but I would rather miss the UK this winter. You might not be able to come back easily to thailand if the other airlines cancel their flights

[bangkoksimon]

They need to clean up their act. This is a major world airport and should be kept open except for the most horrible and dangerous weather.

The coldest winter in Europe & England since the 1600's don't you think that qualifies !

Edited December 22, 2010 by bangkoksimon

[Nakonama]

Cargo planes are stranded too, we have cargo from China to Thailand, which is not moveing due to trapped cargo planes in Germany. now 3 days delay.

[gentman]

I left Heathrow on the 17/12 (Fri) morning for spore. While inside the Spore airline A380, i heard machines noise di-icing our plane. Parked next to our plane was another A380 belonging to Qantas, maybe leaving for Spore on that day too. We were considered lucky to have left that day. One day later, we would had stucked there. Heathrow was virtually closed for flights coming in and leaving.

Edited December 22, 2010 by gentman

[PoorSucker]

They need to clean up their act. This is a major world airport and should be kept open except for the most horrible and dangerous weather.

Precisely. It is the most horrible and dangerous weather. Checked on the status of Frankfurt by the way? Or other European airports?

Helsinki, Stockholm and others with much more snow are open.

Edited December 22, 2010 by PoorSucker

[SamSipEt]

lucky me I did not book for my holidays with thai (they were a tad too expensive for me) and instead flying with jet air. Hope, they are not going to follow thai air way.

I was booked with Jet Airways Bangkok / Heathrow for Sunday morning – cancelled. I was switched to the afternoon Thai flight – cancelled. Spent a night in a hotel at Thai’s expense (room only no food). Sunday afternoon I was offered a night flight on Emirates to Manchester which I took and finally arrived at my destination in the UK Tuesday evening. Tired and 48 hours late but happy to get where I want to be for Xmas.

Jet Airways offered no accommodation or food and only minimal support. One of the staff said that because the problems were weather related they didn’t have any responsibility for taking care of the passengers.

Thai gave 1 night’s accommodation and then said that we were on your own and they didn’t have a representative anywhere to be seen at the hotel.

In contrast Quantas had some stranded passengers at the same hotel that Thai used and they gave room, 3 meals a day and had a help desk manned in reception with laptops offering free internet access and constant updates on the situation

My last thought on the whole sorry affair is that all of the staff that I dealt with (and I spoke to a lot of people trying to sort out the problem myself) were polite and professional it was their company’s policies that I had/have a problem with.

[sydneyjed]

Qantas are still only operating 3 of their 4 Asian outbound flights tonight!2 flights left Heathrow last night to Sydney via Singapore..for some reason the Lon-Bkk flight didn't..not sure why!BBC report today blamed people who are running the airport for not investing money on vital equipment/machinery for this scenario!3200 flights were cancelled in total and only a 1/3rd of flights left up till 8a.m this morning..Reports of people stranded in the airport terminals sound horrific.

Edited December 22, 2010 by sydneyjed

[whybother]

I suppose the problem for Heathrow is that the equipment required to deal with these problems are quite expensive and would only be required for a week out of every 3 or 4 years. If they decided to invest in the appropriate equipment, that would raise landing fees, which would raise ticket prices. At some stage it will become worthwhile for them to invest, but until then expect a rare week of absolute chaos.

[rubl]

To be fair with all the snow and sub-zero temperatures in Europe lots of airports had to close hours or even a day with passengers having to sleep on anything provided for them. Trains have similar problems, bus service cancelled or very limited.

A white Christmas we here in Thailand can only dream of

Edited December 22, 2010 by rubl

[SteveB2]

They need to clean up their act. This is a major world airport and should be kept open except for the most horrible and dangerous weather.

Precisely. It is the most horrible and dangerous weather. Checked on the status of Frankfurt by the way? Or other European airports?

Heathrow airport's level of preparedness for snow is a joke; they should take a lesson from Alaska's very busy Anchorage airport http://www.airport-technology.com/projects/anchorage/ - The sixth busiest airport in the world (by traffic).

The snow clearing teams at Ted Stevens Anchorage international Airport must be laughing themselves silly over the fiasco at Heathrow.

Any day now I am certain the mandarins at Heathrow will inform us that... wait for it... "It was the wrong type of snow!"

[endure]

They need to clean up their act. This is a major world airport and should be kept open except for the most horrible and dangerous weather.

Precisely. It is the most horrible and dangerous weather. Checked on the status of Frankfurt by the way? Or other European airports?

Helsinki, Stockholm and others with much more snow are open.

As the manager of Stockholm's airport pointed out on the BBC yesterday snow is a guaranteed occurrence in Sweden whereas snow of this magnitude is very rare in the UK.

[nimrod74741]

I read this on BBC News Online while sitting by the pool.

Gutted.

[BusyBee123]

They need to clean up their act. This is a major world airport and should be kept open except for the most horrible and dangerous weather.

Precisely. It is the most horrible and dangerous weather. Checked on the status of Frankfurt by the way? Or other European airports?

Heathrow airport's level of preparedness for snow is a joke; they should take a lesson from Alaska's very busy Anchorage airport http://www.airport-t...ects/anchorage/ - The sixth busiest airport in the world (by traffic).

The snow clearing teams at Ted Stevens Anchorage international Airport must be laughing themselves silly over the fiasco at Heathrow.

Any day now I am certain the mandarins at Heathrow will inform us that... wait for it... "It was the wrong type of snow!"

How come a few days of rain in thailand screwed up the country earlier this year, maybe it was the wrong type of rain? Surely thailand is prepared it does happen every year! Your writing is ridiculous you can apply a piss take to anything.

[MRDave]

In Newcastle Upon Tyne my car windscreen was frozen on the inside as well as outside, but the cold weather has its bonuses no dam mosquitoes to eat me alive!

However there's the hostile UK women and no Thai women wanting extra pocket money which is the only downside for me.

[moe666]

lucky me I did not book for my holidays with thai (they were a tad too expensive for me) and instead flying with jet air. Hope, they are not going to follow thai air way.

I was booked with Jet Airways Bangkok / Heathrow for Sunday morning – cancelled. I was switched to the afternoon Thai flight – cancelled. Spent a night in a hotel at Thai's expense (room only no food). Sunday afternoon I was offered a night flight on Emirates to Manchester which I took and finally arrived at my destination in the UK Tuesday evening. Tired and 48 hours late but happy to get where I want to be for Xmas.

Jet Airways offered no accommodation or food and only minimal support. One of the staff said that because the problems were weather related they didn't have any responsibility for taking care of the passengers.

Thai gave 1 night's accommodation and then said that we were on your own and they didn't have a representative anywhere to be seen at the hotel.

In contrast Quantas had some stranded passengers at the same hotel that Thai used and they gave room, 3 meals a day and had a help desk manned in reception with laptops offering free internet access and constant updates on the situation

My last thought on the whole sorry affair is that all of the staff that I dealt with (and I spoke to a lot of people trying to sort out the problem myself) were polite and professional it was their company's policies that I had/have a problem with.

Fly Quantas next time.

[geriatrickid]

They need to clean up their act. This is a major world airport and should be kept open except for the most horrible and dangerous weather.

Precisely. It is the most horrible and dangerous weather. Checked on the status of Frankfurt by the way? Or other European airports?

Helsinki, Stockholm and others with much more snow are open.

Helsinki handles 13 million passengers in a year. Heathrow handles 50 million. stockholm handles 16million. Canada's Toronto Pearson handles 31 million and didn't have the slow down like Helsinki. What's the point? The UK airports are not equipped for rare snow events. It isn't cost effective to invest in the personnel and equipment to prepare for the rare snow event. I think it's a bit unfair to give grief to AMS. FRA, LHR and others for this. It's not a normal event, much like the iceland volcano was not.

[Credo]

So when the government offered to send in the military, why did the Heathrow refuse?

[anterian]

Take your choice, disruption for a few days every few years, or increased landing charges all the time. Now if the Gulf Stream switches off that will be a whole new ball game

[londonthai]

I suppose the problem for Heathrow is that the equipment required to deal with these problems are quite expensive and would only be required for a week out of every 3 or 4 years. If they decided to invest in the appropriate equipment, that would raise landing fees, which would raise ticket prices. At some stage it will become worthwhile for them to invest, but until then expect a rare week of absolute chaos.

BAA made this year already £1bln profit, so 500k to spend this year for an equipment is a joke. The other, smaller airports, like Gatwick, spend many times more than that. That's why they are able to operate within a few hours after a storm, and not a few days.

even increasing landing fees by £1 per aircraft (or 1 pence per passenger) would give BAA needed millions to buy new equipment.

baa did refuse the governments offer to send help from the army, because they said it's a very specialised job and no outsider can do it.

it appeared today, that baa did not have enough de-icing fluid to wash airplanes before take off, and prime ministers intervention allowed them to get it from some emergency sources (probably from the army)

Edited December 22, 2010 by londonthai

[sunholidaysun1]

So when the government offered to send in the military, why did the Heathrow refuse?

No one in the Military can speak Hindi ?

[londonthai]

just a fresh article from some british paper about shortage of de-icing fluid at htr.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1340754/Heathrow-airport-boss-Colin-Matthews-failed-order-icer-snow.html

heathrow boss gave up his end of the year bonus running in millions and based on the 1bln profit.

cancellations expected well after xmass, thai airways probably will operate more flights from the continental europe, where airports are better equipped and prepared for the winter