Airlines critical of Gatwick after weather forces closure

The closing of Gatwick’s runway on Friday morning caused disruptions for thousands of passengers, and could have been avoided if the airport operator had acted more rapidly to the weather conditions, claim both British Airways and easyJet.

Gatwick’s only runway remained closed from before dawn until 10:30am local time. The owner of the airport, BAA, cited “exceptional weather conditions” as the reason for the closure.

Airport management said that the snow and ice, which had not been predicted, caught them off guard, so that attempts to clear the runway didn’t begin until after 6:00am. Removing the ice and snow took four hours, during which time hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled, causing a knock-on effect throughout the day.

All incoming easyJet and BA flights were forced to land at other airports in the south-east, including Bournemouth, Heathrow, Luton, Manston and Stansted. Both carriers now face the challenge of getting their planes back on course and getting passengers back to Gatwick to meet friends and family and collect their vehicles.

“BAA was the only organisation in the south-east that didn’t know about the bad weather last night,” Andrew McConnell of easyJet said to The Times. “I’m happy to put the boot into BAA. It is disgraceful.”

BA is also furious over the lengthy closing: “There is sophisticated weather forecasting at an airport like Gatwick,” an airline spokesman said. “It is the world’s busiest single runway airport and it took them four hours to clear the runway. They should have started earlier or worked overnight. There are established procedures for these circumstances.”

Thanks to www.timesonline.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.gatwickairport.com