‘Wrong sort of de-icer’ adds to air travel chaos
HUNDREDS of passengers’ travel plans were thrown into disarray because the de-icer at the airport could not be used in snow flurries.
Further delays were caused on Monday, it has emerged, because Blue Islands and Flybe do not have formal arrangements to use Aurigny’s de-icing equipment.
Despite the runway being open with the snow not sticking, 14 flights were cancelled and nine were delayed.
Guernsey Airport has apologised for the disruption and passengers being given inconsistent messages about the reasons for the problems.
‘The disruption is of immense regret and clearly created frustration for passengers affected,’ general manager of ports, Colin Le Ray, said.
‘The airport is now engaging with the customer service representatives of each airline in an effort to ensure the communications in such incidents are better honed and more consistently delivered.’
The airport said Blue Islands and Flybe did not have formal arrangements in place for de-icing their aircraft when in the island.
Aurigny, via Anglo Normandy, were able to provide de-icing to these operators on an ‘ad-hoc’ basis when possible, as long as it did not compromise Aurigny operations, it added.
‘This will have led to further delays and cancellations [Monday],’ said a spokesman.
‘There is an intention to try to establish a de-icing co-operative at Guernsey Airport to regularise availability of this service, but that will rely on all the airlines securing agreement between themselves over funding and service provision.
‘The airport will seek to encourage this, but it will ultimately need to be a commercial and operational decision between third-parties.’
He said de-icing aircraft was a specialist service, requiring trained aircraft engineers to supervise the application and distribution of product.
‘This is not a service the airport provides, and would require it to recruit and train aircraft engineers for services typically only required a few days per year.
‘Disruption to Aurigny’s flights was due to the weather conditions being unsuitable for the de-icing chemical that is used by the airline.
‘It is one of three types typically used for aircraft in the UK.
‘The typical weather patterns at Guernsey lend themselves to use of type 1 product and this has been used historically with great success; including extensively this winter.
‘However, it cannot be applied in freezing rain or snow, such as those conditions experienced [Monday].’
A Guernsey Met Office spokesman said:
‘Temperatures dropped to plus one on Monday, with sleet and snow for most of the morning. No snow was sticking to the ground, we understand the state of the runway was not an issue’.
A Blue Islands spokesman said: ‘Blue Islands has formal de-icing arrangements in place at all other airports on its network and has had such an arrangement with Aurigny at Guernsey previously for a number of years.
‘Although Aurigny has refused to issue a formal contract for de-icing services this season, an agreement in principle exists and so far this winter Blue Islands’ aircraft have been de-iced by Aurigny on an ad-hoc basis 10 times, including on Monday 19 March.
‘Blue Islands believes a co-operative arrangement for the provision of de-icing services at Guernsey Airport is in everyone’s best interest and it will strive to have such an arrangement in place by the winter 2018/19 season.’
