Birmingham: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

[Ray Finkle]

Two more Easyjets, and A319 and A320, are en route from LTN. ATC are now warning all diverts that the runway will be closing at 23:05 with calls also made to those on the ground, an Easy A320 recently departed back to BRS but hopefully the Oman A333 will still be around in the morning for photo's 🙂

 

[Ray Finkle]

Turkish A321 TC-JRR now diverting in from Heathrow. The Oman Air A333 just called in to depart back to LHR in 10 mins.

 

[Ray Finkle]

There's quite a few frantic radio transmissions going on between the diverted aircraft and ATC with regards to the runway closure, pilots are being told wheels must be moving on pushback by 23:05 or you're staying the night. The Wizz A320 is going back to LTN, the KLM back to AMS, the TAP A319 to LIS and the Oman Air A333 to LHR, the rest will be here for the night.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Well the TAP missed pushback by 30 secs or so, the pilot seemed very disappointed saying they were ready but ATC told him it was out of their hands as the airport authority had made the decision not to let them go and they would come and have a word with him. I understand that rules is rules and time is money but for the sake of a minute or so why p#$$ off a potential customer that BHX are (hopefully) trying to court.

The others departed on time.

 

[User0001]

That's going to piss TAP off no end! Also I thought the runway works would be suspended in bad weather?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Too right it will. Either BHX have spoke to them and been told not interested or BHX haven't got them in mind for a service because if they really are a potential customer then that's a shocking way to treat them.

I think it's ridiculous that in light of current conditions they couldn't have kept the runway open another couple of hours, there are still plenty more Easyjets heading north, to LPL and MAN now, with I imgine plenty more to come, even QTR5 has diverted over the channel towards Paris.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Overall I think BHX did quite well yesterday considering RWY15 is currently without an ILS and the early closing of the runway. It was unfortunate that the Air Portugal didn't get away in time but in fairness to BHX plenty of notice was given with several transmissions made by ATC, even at 23:00 when asked if ready to pushback he said he was waiting for clearance and would be ready in 2-3mins, ATC then said start the pushback and we'll sort the clearance whilst taxiing but it just didn't happen. The Wizzair, KLM and Oman Air managed to push back in time and I understand that if you do it for one then you have to do it for all but for the sake of a minute or so to keep a potential future customer happy it's a shame they couldn't do it.

Yesterdays full list:

A4O-DE A333 Oman Air - Muscat-Heathrow
CS-TTO A319 Air Portugal -Oporto-Heathrow
EI-DEH A320 Aer Lingus -Dublin-Manchester
EI-DYI B738 Ryanair -Wroclaw-Bristol
EI-FAW AT76 Aer Arran -Dublin-Bristol
EI-REL AT72 Aer Arran -Cork-Bristol
G-BYMK D228 Cityjet (BCY176Y/081P)
G-EZDD A319 Easyjet -Belfast-Bristol
G-EZDN A319 Easyjet -Barcelona-Stansted
G-EZFE A319 Easyjet -Newcastle-Bristol
G-EZUM A320 Easyjet -Amsterdam-stansted
G-EZUN A320 Easyjet -Geneva-Bristol
G-EZWI A320 Easyjet ?
G-LCYN E190 BA Cityflyer -London City
G-TAWF B738 Thomson -Tenerife-Exeter
HA-LPN A320 Wizz Air Gdansk-Luton
OK-TSA B738 Jet2 -Rome-Manchester
PH-EZH E190 KLM -Amsterdam-Heathrow
TC-JRR A321 Turkish Airlines -Istanbul-Heathrow

 

[Hassaan]

The Virgin A333 diversion:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7STRNb8AI8[/video]

 

[Ray Finkle]

Nice clip thanks for posting it. I spoke to the guy (Johnny Bonkers) who recorded it on top of the car park a couple of weeks ago, very nice chap.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Very foggy first thing this morning with lots of aircraft going into the hold due to no ILS at the moment. A Thomson from Barbados due roughly 4am diverted away along with Swiss, Air France and an Aer Arran from Cork later on.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I see the Express & Star are back to their anti Birmingham ways seeing three diverts away as newsworthy enough to include on their website. Odd how an airport 'spokesperson' says three aircraft "of the same type" diverted when it was an Aer Arran ATR76, a Helvetic F100 and an Air France A319?

I thought with the new JLR engine plant being built in Wolverhampton they had warmed slightly to BHX 🙄

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/tran ... d-weather/

 

[Ray Finkle]

PK791 is carrying a 10 hour delay making it due at 00:05, as this is well past the runway closure time it will be operating into MAN instead.

 

[Aviador]

Usual box of tricks for PIA :nea:

 

[User0001]

Usual box of tricks for PIA

While a 10 hour delay is not great, I fail to see why this is 'the usual box of tricks'? If the runway is closed there is not an awful lot PIA could do about it, other than delay the flight even more to arrive after 6am today for the runway to be open.

Like I say, 10 hour delay is a bit naff, but would rather they get me 'near' to where I need to be rather than delay me even more and possibly cancel the flight.

 

[Aviador]

I was thinking more along the lines of general fleet serviceability.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I've not checked anything official but in fairness to PIA I think their performance has been quite reasonable of late, off the top of my head I can't think of any really significant delays recently. Of course it could just be that we're now immune to it and a delay of a couple of hours doesn't even register anymore 🙂

 

[Ray Finkle]

Very foggy this morning and with the reduced landing aids UAL27 has already diverted initially looking like it was going to MAN but went over the top carrying on north when I lost it. It doesn't look to be improving out there so I imagine there will more diverts soon from those in the hold.

2014/03/13 06:50 EGBB 130650Z 00000KT 0050 R15/0250 FZFG OVC001 M00/M00 Q1030

 

[Ray Finkle]

UAL27 went up to EDI and arrived back later in the morning, there were cancellations on Swiss, Air France, Lufthansa, Ryanair and Flybe, several Ryanair's diverted to Luton and an Aer Lingus, Lufthansa and KLM went up to MAN.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Ray,

I saw at least half a dozen coaches with Birmingham addresses emblazoned on the bodywork heading to and from Bristol Airport along the A38 early afternoon today. Do you know if any BRS flights diverted into BHX? The BRS website threw a complete wobbly this morning and got itself in such a state that it frightened itself and froze, so no help there with this query.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I don't know of any BRS diverts but have been at work all day. I've just checked the spotters forum and movements blog and there is nothing mentioned on either of those, the movements blog hasn't been updated since this morning though so if the diverts were this afternoon it's possible they haven't been listed yet. I'll keep an eye on it over the next few hours.


Forgot to mention Turkmenistan carried a big delay yesterday meaning it couldn't depart before the runway closure so the aircraft night stopped and departed just after 10am this morning.