Brussels Airport is a disaster when it freezes and snows

[Depretair]

Start de-icing the parking stands chemically for instance, or at least sand them like they do in Scandinavia. Just letting the snow melt and then freeze on again over night, days after days after days is NOT an option! Brussels looked like an ice ring yesterday!

That would be a very nice idea.
I flew yesterday and I almost killed myself 3 times between the crew entrance and the bus and between the bus and the plane.
What are they waiting for ?

[9vsmu]

Rumours go BAC has a manpower problem to man all the equipment.

This must be Belgium

[tolipanebas]

Start de-icing the parking stands chemically for instance, or at least sand them like they do in Scandinavia. Just letting the snow melt and then freeze on again over night, days after days after days is NOT an option! Brussels looked like an ice ring yesterday!

That would be a very nice idea.
I flew yesterday and I almost killed myself 3 times between the crew entrance and the bus and between the bus and the plane.What are they waiting for ?

Sanding (or pebble dashing) is commonly used in Scandinavia.

It has the added benefit of being a natural process, not causing any polution and it needn't be repeated once done, at least not till another layer of snow or ice builds up on top of the areas covered by it.

The only disadvantage is that you have to swipe it all up after the snow has melted off, at least if you don't want your apron being covered with it once the snow is gone, but if you do, the pebbles can even be re-used!

You can't have it more ecological than that, can you? That's why it is so much loved in Scandinavia!

BAC says there are "no alternatives available".
Don't make me laugh guys! Do you take us for fools or what?

[Darjeeling]

Rumours go BAC has a manpower problem to man all the equipment.

This must be Belgium

Absolutely !! Typical answer/excuse you get in BRU airport is: "we zijn niet genoeg" ! From handlers, local airlines and so on.
What pisses me off is that state of mind typical from Belgium: Why would we invest in better winter facilities if we only face ten days of heavy snow a year ? When you see and listen to BRU airport spokesperson it becomes more than pathetic.

[Propwash]

BRU Topic Off

@ SPL the delays are max. 45 minutes

H E R E is a nice (prototype) Capacity Forecast Schiphol (CPS) including De-Icing Forecast

BRU Topic On

[tolipanebas]

What pisses me off is that state of mind typical from Belgium: Why would we invest in better winter facilities if we only face ten days of heavy snow a year ? When you see and listen to BRU airport spokesperson it becomes more than pathetic.

BRU is amongst the 5 most expensive airports in Europe to operate from...

That person is able to sell his story only because the journalist doesn't know shit about aviation.

Next time, why don't they drop the magic word after he is finished about how bad it is to use salt or to remove the snow physically: "And how about using SAND like in Scandinavia?"

I would really love to hear how he tries to wiggle himself from under that one...

[stefanel]

The airport is closed again and this time there is even less snow that on the 17th (about 5cm). I still don't get how an airport can be closed to both departures and arrivals since 8:55 for such a small amount of snow... it is beyond me!

[fretn]

there's still more snow on the way, it might stop in the afternoon.
But in OST it's still snowing "oude wijven".

[Atlantis]

CRL and OST are also closed

[RoMax]

The airport is closed again and this time there is even less snow that on the 17th (about 5cm). I still don't get how an airport can be closed to both departures and arrivals since 8:55 for such a small amount of snow... it is beyond me!

That is normal everywhere in Europe (exept of Scandinavia and cold snowy airports). It is to risky to land or let take off a plane even is a few centimeters of snow. But these snow need to be go away (and you can't use salt for an airport) and that goes very slow. That is a bit the problem of BRU.

[stefanel]

The airport is closed again and this time there is even less snow that on the 17th (about 5cm). I still don't get how an airport can be closed to both departures and arrivals since 8:55 for such a small amount of snow... it is beyond me!

That is normal everywhere in Europe (exept of Scandinavia and cold snowy airports). It is to risky to land or let take off a plane even is a few centimeters of snow. But these snow need to be go away (and you can't use salt for an airport) and that goes very slow. That is a bit the problem of BRU.

So you mean they have no snowplough trucks?

Where are the airplanes diverted to? Lille must be closed as well, so what Germany, Schiphol?

[RoMax]

The airport is closed again and this time there is even less snow that on the 17th (about 5cm). I still don't get how an airport can be closed to both departures and arrivals since 8:55 for such a small amount of snow... it is beyond me!

That is normal everywhere in Europe (exept of Scandinavia and cold snowy airports). It is to risky to land or let take off a plane even is a few centimeters of snow. But these snow need to be go away (and you can't use salt for an airport) and that goes very slow. That is a bit the problem of BRU.

So you mean they have no snowplough trucks?

Where are the airplanes diverted to? Lille must be closed as well, so what Germany, Schiphol?

Oh yes they have trucks. But it is a work that goes very slow, you need to clean kilometers of runway and taxiways. And when it is still snowing (like now) it goes even slower.

[sdbelgium]

At least three flights diverted to LGG, I don't know about the rest. AMS maybe? LUX?

[stefanel]

At least three flights diverted to LGG, I don't know about the rest. AMS maybe? LUX?

But now Liege is closed, in fact all Belgian airports are closed at this time! Incredible!

[sn26567]

At least three flights diverted to LGG

OA145 from ATH
9W225 from JFK
JP376 from LJU

also FR45 from BGY due to land in CRL

[tolipanebas]

Brussels Airlines is now asking all passengers having the flexibility to change their travel plans to rebook their Sunday flight to a later SN flight without penalty and without having to pay a fare differential....

[Conti764]

How they do it is their problem no ?
Com'on ... within a few days we're in the year 2010 and we have to hear that ?
Using e.g high pressure blower or things like that followed by spreading effective salt should do it no ?
How do they do that in the Nordics ? In the Northern part of the U.S ... com'on guys ...
Cheers dudes
Lamby

I was just asking because I honostly didn't know how they'd do it...

[Acid-drop]

I made special topic for LGG
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=40991

[stefanel]

Brussels Airlines is now asking all passengers having the flexibility to change their travel plans to rebook their Sunday flight to a later SN flight without penalty and without having to pay a fare differential....

yeah right, by calling a highway robbery phone number, 1€ per minute or something! So lame! It should be a normal number when passengers are not at fault!

[RoMax]

Brussels Airlines is now asking all passengers having the flexibility to change their travel plans to rebook their Sunday flight to a later SN flight without penalty and without having to pay a fare differential....

yeah right, by calling a highway robbery phone number, 1€ per minute or something! So lame! It should be a normal number when passengers are not at fault!

Ok you are wright but try any other company and tell me when you found one without these expensive numbers. So again critical about SN only but this is normal in aviation industry.