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Post by sadie1263 on Dec 22, 2010 3:42:49 GMT
LONDON— The world's busiest international airport told infuriated passengers not to expect full service until Thursday, five days after a five-inch snowstorm turned hundreds of thousands of holiday plans into a nightmare of canceled flights and painful nights on terminal floors. Travelers' anger boiled over into politics as Britain's prime minister offered to put troops on snow-clearing duty. Europe's top transport official threatened tougher regulation of airports unable to cope with unusually wintry weather. Prime Minister David Cameron said his government had "offered military assistance" to the company that operates Europe's busiest airport and others in Britain. But British Transport Secretary Philip Hammond told Sky News that Heathrow operator BAA, owned by Spain's Ferrovial, had turned down the help in clearing snow from runways. Cameron said that given the exceptional weather, which saw 5 inches of snow fall on Saturday, it was inevitable Heathrow would shut for a time. With a backlog of canceled flights, Heathrow said it would be operating around one third of a normal flight schedule until 6 a.m. on Thursday. "I am frustrated on behalf of all those affected that it has taken so long for the situation to improve," Cameron said. Major delays and cancellations persisted at European airports and on the Eurostar train link between the UK and the continent, leaving thousands stranded across Europe as Christmas approached. European Union transportation commissioner Siim Kallas threatened the possibility of new "minimal service" standards for airports if performance does not improve. "Better preparedness, in line with what is done in Northern Europe is not an optional extra, it must be planned for and with the necessary investment," he said. London's Gatwick Airport, which closed overnight due to renewed snowfall, re-opened at 0600 GMT but passengers were told to expect further disruption, delays and cancellations. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40763656/ns/weather/#************************** There's more to the story if you care to read it......I just wondered what the deal was with the guy turning down the help of having the runways cleared. The story insinuates it is political......but I don't know any of the background to this.....just wondered if any of you did??? It seems ridiculous to let people be stranded and be losing money by the moment with the planes on the ground.
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Post by Ben Lomond on Dec 22, 2010 11:36:00 GMT
Apparently the chap in charge of BAA is on over a million a year, and is in line this year for a performance bonus running into 6 figures! Truly, there are times when you couldn't make it up!
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Post by gabriel on Dec 22, 2010 11:55:06 GMT
Let's just say I'm glad that I'm not planning to fly into or out of the UK or Europe at the moment.
Your weather sucks.
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Post by mouse on Dec 22, 2010 14:18:58 GMT
i gather the well paid chappie will not be acepting his bonus this year,,,and very rightly and while the weather situation is out of the hands of the airports...the situation of lack of information..crew and air time and equipment ...is some thing which needs adressing abd fast the same applys to euro star,,talk about incompetence and bad management...totally pathetic
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Post by peterl on Dec 22, 2010 14:45:47 GMT
i gather the well paid chappie will not be acepting his bonus this year,,,and very rightly It would be even more rightly if he also handed back a sizaable percent of his normal pay
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Post by sadie1263 on Dec 22, 2010 15:40:46 GMT
Why would he deny the help though......isn't that just insanity? Personally I would be afraid the people in the airport were going to start torching the place!!!
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Post by sadie1263 on Dec 24, 2010 2:34:53 GMT
I've been meaning to ask......are flights taking off from there yet??
I did see on some news feed that the guy has turned down his end of the year bonus, though.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2010 7:52:57 GMT
Time to re-nationalise the airports, among other things.
Did the Tories, when luring us all into buying shares in privatised companies, give a thought to the possibility that one day the services would cease to be British any more?
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