House of Commons - Transport

Select Committee on Transport Fourth Report

Annex

Note to Transport Committee

Disruption caused by severe weather in January 2004

There was heavy snowfall during the early evening period on 28 January 2004. The press reported considerable disruption to transport services, particularly at Heathrow Airport, caused by this snowfall. We therefore wrote to transport providers including those airlines which had been reported as suffering cancellations and delays, requesting information on the affect on services of the severe weather.

The responses from Network Rail and London Underground gave a full account of the problems and clearly set out the lessons for the future. It was, however, noteworthy that we had four submissions relating to the disruption at Heathrow, three from airlines and one from the Airline Operators Committee. These responses highlighted some failings in the systems for dealing with snow and ice at Heathrow. Any reference to statements by the three airlines comes from their letters. The letter from British Airways (BA) is referenced SW 03, the letter from South African Airways (SAA) is referenced SW 05 and that from British Midland Airways (bmi), SW 06.

Preparations for severe weather

A joint airport and handling agent 'snow cell' has been a feature of snow contingencies at Gatwick Airport for some time. A snow cell was set up more recently at Heathrow, in consultation with Gatwick, to monitor and coordinate snow clearance and aircraft de-icing activity. BA told us that during the winter season 2003/04 they operated a fleet of 16 de-icing rigs at Heathrow and 8 at Gatwick, each of which cost £300,000.[41] A total of 210 BA staff at Heathrow and 62 at Gatwick are trained in de-icing activities. bmi and SAA have contracts with de-icing providers for the de-icing of their aircraft, although not all airlines operating into Heathrow have such a contract. bmi indicated in its evidence that this was a weakness in the system.[42]

The weather conditions on 28 and 29 January had been forecast several days in advance by the Meteorological Office. A moderate to high risk of settling snow on 28 January had been identified early on and on 27January two potential snow bearing fronts were forecast. On the basis of this forecast both BA and bmi told us that they had staff on standby, including aircrew, and that their operations team had prepared a proposed cancellation list. In the days preceding 28 January BA had met with British Airports Authority (BAA) on a number of occasions to review contingencies both bilaterally and under the auspices of the Airline Operators Committee (AOC).[43]

Impact of the severe weather

Conditions at Heathrow on 28/29 January

During the early part of 28 January there were adverse weather conditions at other UK and European airports. The bad weather spread to the South East of England during the afternoon and Heathrow Airport was reduced to single runway operation to allow for anti-icing. Flow restrictions were enforced and inbound services from Europe were delayed at their departure airports.

The snowfall was severe at Heathrow between 17:20 and 18:00 and at Gatwick between 17:50 and 18:35. The airlines gave some conflicting information about the situation at Heathrow. SAA said that Heathrow airport closed for a short period and then operated with flow restrictions whereas bmi said that Heathrow airport closed for departures until 20:30. BA told us that the snow cell was operational during 28 and 29 January but SAA said that it 'stood down' at 16.00 on 28 January just before the heavy snowfall. SAA said that as a result of the 'stand down' the airside taxiway was not gritted that evening.

When the snow storm began at Heathrow some 26 aircraft had to return from their taxi positions to stands in order to be de-iced for the second time. SAA said that this had a major impact on all operators at Heathrow. SAA had asked its de-icing contractor to reconvene the snow cell but the contractor was unable to send anyone, being in the middle of de-icing operations. The contractor told SAA that it was having difficulties operating on parts of the airfield and on the stands due to inadequate de-icing by HAL.

BA reported that during the evening of 28 January conditions on the ramp deteriorated rapidly, became unsafe and in some cases inoperable.[44] Arriving BA flight crew on 29 January found that, although runways were generally clear, taxiways were contaminated with frozen slush and cul-de-sacs and ramp areas showed no sign of having been treated.

No services departed from Terminal 4 before 9:30 on 29 January because of the dangerous ramp conditions. Arriving aircraft were held on taxiways for up to two hours. The number of aircraft awaiting stands at all terminals forced National Air Traffic Services (NATS) to stop incoming flights for a short period to relieve the pressure. During this time no aircraft were allowed to depart for Heathrow from European airports.

Conditions on the ramp at BA's Engineering base were similar to those in terminal areas during the morning of 29 January and the base was declared unsafe and closed. This meant that arriving aircraft, which would have been towed to the base, remained at the Terminals adding to the congestion at parking stands there. Air temperatures rose during the morning of 29 January and by 13:00 most stands across Heathrow were operational, as was the engineering base. However the impact of the disruption continued for some time.

Service cancellations

Heathrow Airport operates at maximum capacity throughout most of the day. Under normal operating conditions arrivals of 40 aircraft an hour are regularly achieved. In snow and other low visibility conditions the arrival rate is greatly reduced, often to as low as 25 per hour. BA told us that when flow rates are reduced significantly there is insufficient airport capacity to cope with the resulting disruption and cancellations are unavoidable.

Over the two days of 28 and 29 January, out of a total of 733 BA services scheduled to depart from Heathrow and Gatwick, 161 were cancelled, either as a direct result of the weather conditions or as a consequence of them. In addition, a total of 17 arriving aircraft were diverted to alternative airports within the UK and 31 flights were subject to serious delays in excess of 3 hours.

When faced with the need to cancel services BA told us that their first priority was to maintain long haul services: the main consideration being the ease with which affected passengers can continue to their final destination. Other considerations are the frequency of service on a particular route, the option of alternative surface transport and the speed at which a particular service can recover. Furthermore the cancellation of long haul services has more long term impact on the positioning of crew and aircraft.

bmi reported that a total of 82 services within the bmi group were cancelled on 28 January, 62 of which were to or from Heathrow. Of the 82, 53 were due to air traffic control (ATC) delays at Heathrow and the remainder were the result of closures of other UK airports. Two flights were also diverted. On 29 January bmi cancelled 29 services, 27 of which were to or from Heathrow because of air traffic control restrictions and the lack of parking stands. In addition two services from Norwich were cancelled due to the closure of Norwich airport.

One SAA flight was delayed because of need to de-ice but two further flights did not operate, one because of the night flying ban and the second due to the crew running out of hours.

Both SAA and bmi mentioned the fact the because of the delays to flights their services ran into the night time quota restrictions at Heathrow. SAA said that it was refused a dispensation:

It should be noted that we asked for dispensation for a departure during the night quota and this was refused, we asked on the basis of passenger hardship due to lack of accommodation. Concerns are being raised by a number of airlines as year on year the number of night quota movements are being reduced and this is impacting on our ability to operate our services when being delayed by circumstances outside of our control. This matter is being raised with the DFT by the LACC.[45]

Failings identified

De-icing policy

All three airlines complained about the failure of HAL to de-ice aircraft parking stands. BA told us that BAA had a policy at Heathrow of giving priority to maintaining clear runways and taxiways rather that stands. BA said that because of the limited number of stands at Heathrow it is critical that aircraft are able to depart in order to make space for arriving aircraft. BAA has now responded to this issue and has revised its severe weather plans to have a more even balance of priority between the treatment of runways, taxiways and ramp areas. The new plans were tested during the less severe weather over the weekend of 28/29 February.

De-icing of aircraft is currently undertaken at the departure stand. This is time consuming and increases the amount of time the stand is occupied. It also means that an aircraft has to return to the stand for de-icing if it has been held in a queue after leaving the stand. This occurred on 28 January. Many airports provide a de-icing facility away from the Terminal closer to the point of departure. BA said that it would be working with BAA to explore the possibility of providing a separate de-icing facility away from the Terminal. bmi mentioned that its contractor was unable to provide sufficient de-icing fluid. BA also cited the "more mundane logistics of snow and ice clearance" which should be attended to in contingency planning meetings with HAL. BA reported that since the disruption of 28/29 January BAA had made significant improvements to the storage and availability of materials and the manpower deployed on ramp and terminal clearance.