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Written evidence from Gatwick Airport (AWC 20)
1.
Summary
1.1.
Two
specific periods of heavy snowfall affected Gatwick in the final weeks of last year. At the end of November into early December accumulations of up to 24cm, drifting up to 40cm in places, closed our airfield and disabled critical surface access networks. The weekend before Christmas – one of Gatwick’s busiest weekends of the year when more than 240,000 passengers were scheduled to travel – saw snowfall of 10cm close our airfield for two
very brief period
s
. With snow causing air travel disruption across
Europe
, there
continued to be disruption even when the airport returned to full operations.
1.2.
On both occasions our main priorities
were
to
maintain a safe pavement surface condition for aircraft operations,
minimise disruption to airport operations and
reduce
inconvenience to airline passengers. We worked in close collaboration with our airlines, ground handlers and other airport partners, under command and control arrangements, to reopen our airfield as soon as it was safe to do so. Throughout the disruption we were dedicated to the welfare of passengers and the provision of timely communications to airport users and external audiences.
1.3.
With Gatwick having come under new ownership in
December 2009, the snowfall of w
inter 2009/10 was the
new
management team’s first experience of adverse weather at the airport. The collaborative approach developed with our airport partners in Decem
ber 2009 proved very useful in w
inter 2009/10 a
nd was enhanced throughout 2010, through workshops and table top exercises to improve preparedness for snow disruption.
In the most recent snow periods, our ongoing work with
airlines, ground handlers,
air traffic control, emergency services,
UKBA and others proved valuable in seeking to
ensure adequate preparations
were made
ahead of, and speedy recovery from, each heavy snowfall
.
1.4.
Although
w
inter 2009/10
was
described by weather forecasters as a "one in 20 year
event" Gatwick invested £600,000 upgrading the airport’s snow clearing equipment
and de-icer storage facilities
in s
ummer 2010
. We also
worked with airlines and airport partners to
develop and agree
enhance
d
snow contingency plans, following ben
ch
marking visits to Scandinavian airports
in
Oslo
,
Helsinki
and Stockholm Arlanda
.
1.5.
Followin
g the first period of snow in late November we
made an immediate decision to invest a further
£8 million to double the size of Gatwick’s snow fleet
from 47 to 95 vehicles, which
will put our snow clearing capability on a par with that of
Oslo
A
irport
in
Norway
. G
atwick now has 14 Shorling snow ploughs for our single runway – more than any other airport in the
UK
.
2.
Introduction
2.1.
Gatwick
Airport Ltd (Gatwick
) welcomes the opportunity to submit written evidence to the inquiry on the impact on transport of recent adverse weather conditions.
2.2.
Under independent ownership since December 2008, Gatwick’s ambition is to compete to grow and become London’s airport of choice.
Gatwick
is the
UK
’s second largest
gateway and the busiest single-runway airport in the world.
Directly s
erving more than 200 destinations (more than any other UK airport) in 90 countries for around 33 million passengers a year, Gatwick is a major economic driver for the South-east region, generating around 23,000 on-airport jobs and a further 13,000 jobs through related activities. The airport is 28 miles south of London with excellent surface access transport links including the award winning Gatwick Express train service.
2.3.
In December 2010 transport networks across Europe faced significant disruption due to snow and ice. Airports experienced operational impacts which, alongside safety considerations, resulted in flight delays and cancellations. Gatwick was affected by the adverse weather conditions on two occasions during December.
2.4.
We believe we managed the impact of snow and ice professionally with a clear and constant focus on minimising disruption and inconvenience to airline passengers. We acted quickly and worked closely with our airlines, handling agents and other airport partners to reopen our airfield, after necessary closures, as soon as it was safe to do so. Throughout the disruption we were dedicated to the welfare of passengers and the provision of timely communications to airport users and external audiences.
3.
Recent snowfall
3.1.
England
experienced its
coldest
December
for 10
0 years in 2010.
In the south-east region where Gatwick is located, t
here were two specific periods of
heavy
s
nowfall that affected
airport operations and the
regional
transport network.
3.2.
The first period, between Tuesday 30 November and Saturday 4
December saw
accumulations of up to 24cm at Gatwick,
drift
ing
up to 40cm
in places,
which
disabled the regional transport network for days
. Our
airfield
closed at
9.33pm
on 30 November
and
reopened at
8.07pm
on 2 December
after our
staff worked around the clock to
clear
c.150
,000
tonnes
of snow. The first passenger flight took-off at
6
.00
am
on 3
December
. In this first snow period,
our
airfield was c
losed for a total duration of 46 hours and 34
minutes. Around 680 flights were
cancelled
and
some
300
were delayed.
3.3.
The second period
– prior to Christmas –
between Saturday 18 and Monday 20 December
saw
two separate
snow
falls
at Gatwick each
with
accumulations of up to 10cm
. O
n the first occasion on 18 December o
ur
airfield
closed
at
10
.00am
but
reopened at
2:45pm
the same day
(4 hours 45 minutes)
; on the second occasion on 20 December our airfield closed at
9.00pm
but reopened at
11.00pm
the same day
(2 hours)
. During this period
a 150-
strong
team worked tirelessly to clear
around
50
,000 tonnes of
snow and ice from the
airfield
.
Notwithstanding some
inevitable
delays,
over
8
0
% of passengers were
able make their journey
.
3.4.
On both occasions, in addition to the airfield snow clearance activities
,
our teams successfully cleared and maintained the 27.2 miles of roads surrounding the airport. Gatwick executive directors, managers and staff
were deployed on both occasions to support our operations teams, airlines and partners with snow clearance, passenger welfare
activities
and
provision of information
.
4.
Gatwick co-ordination
4.1.
Our
Airport Snow Plan was
enhanced and jointly approved by airlines
, business partners and the emergency services
during summer 2010, following a number of
stakeholder workshops and
benchmarking visits to
Scandinavian
airports.
4.2.
Our
command and control contingency process
was central to
our ability to react
swiftly
and
in a co-ordinated manner to minimise the impact of snow.
Gatwick has a standing contingency Crisis Management Team (CMT) on-call 24/7
providing
365 days a year support
our
o
perations teams
, airlines and airport partners
.
W
ith advance weather forecasts predicting
snowfall
on both occasions
, the
CMT convened the
Joint Business Continuity Team (JBCT)
comprising
airlines,
ground
handlers,
the
police,
UKBA
, air traffic control
and other partners
, to
meet
regularly
to
manage
the
situation.
4.3.
The collaborative approach
of the JBCT
was invaluable
in
managing
airfield operation
s
and airline passenger matters in the first snow per
iod. In the second snow period
,
following CMT meetings
on 15 and 16
December, the ongoing liaison with
the JBCT was
combined with
t
he ‘Silver Command’ level of Gatwick’s
contingency process
when it
was activat
ed
on
the afternoon of
17 December in anticipation of imminent s
nowfall.
All relevant
partners participated in
meetings
to ensure adequate preparations
were made
ahead of, a
nd speedy recovery from, snowfall.
4.4.
Following our learning from
w
inter
2009/10, the
investment Gatwick has been making, in the first year of new ownership, in snow clearance equipment made a vital difference in enabling the airport to respond more swiftly and minimise t
he impact of snow.
Despite w
inter 2009/10 being
described by weather forecasters
as a "one in 20 year event", the severity of the
snowfall
in November and December
fully justified the 2010 summer investment and the subsequent deci
sion to invest a further
£8
million in new equipment.
4.5.
Our
investment
, which w
ill be completed in advance of w
inter 2011/12,
will double
the size of o
ur airport snow fleet to 9
5
vehicles
. This will put
Gatwick's snow clearing
cap
abil
ity on a par with that of
Oslo
A
i
rport
in
Norway
.
4.6.
Gatwick
took immediate action following the early December snow event and sought out additional equipment that was available on the market from other European airports and
now has 14
dedicated
Shorling
snow ploughs for our single runway
in addition to
tractors with brushes
,
snow cutters,
de-icing
and friction testing
vehicles
. It took just two weeks to source, inspect, purchase, ship and make operational, six additional Shorling snow ploughs from
Zurich
Airport
.
4.7.
Our visits to Scandinavian airports during s
pring
2010 enabled us to
prepare robust
plans for enhancing our snow fleet. This meant we were able to make the decision to invest quickly and efficiently.
4.8.
Throughou
t both
snow periods we
endeavoured
to maintain regular contact with
stakeholders in government, parliament, the local community and the media,
providing updates on the latest situation
Gatwick and how the airport was dealing with the
adverse weather
.
The s
takeholder feedback
we received, and are still receiving,
has
been positive and supportive of our efforts.
5.
Passenger welfare
and information
5.1.
Despite planning and preparation, the intensity of the
snowfall
,
particularly during the first period
made
delays and disruption to
passenger
s’
journeys
inevitable
.
We were dedicated to the welfare of passengers
during the
first period when we
closed for over 44
hours and again during the pre-Christmas weekend
,
one of Gatwick’s busiest of the year with more than 240,000 passengers scheduled to travel.
5.2.
During
both snow
perio
ds
we placed high importance on
communi
cat
ing
the lates
t information to passengers
and
their friends
and
families.
We used a range of channels to communicate with passengers including national and regional print and broadcast media, face-to-face conversations, multi-lingual leaflets and tannoy announcements, terminal information screens, our website, social media and our online inquiry service. Twitter was a very important, real-time channel during the snow periods when our number of ‘followers’ grew from 3,500 to more than 18,000 people.
5.3.
W
e
provided free
internet kiosk
s
and
w
i-fi access to enable passengers to rebook or make alternative travel arrangements. We also provided free mobile phone-charging points
and distributed mobile phone chargers to passengers to help them maintain contact with friends and family.
5.4.
During periods of closure we encouraged passengers who could return home and re-arrange their travel plans to do so. W
e
then
focused on providing welfare for those who had no other option than to remain at Gatwick. We distributed thousands of bottles of water, hundreds of blankets, mattresses, cots and food to delayed airline passengers. Hundreds of
office-based staff volunteered to support and assist passengers in both our terminals
and this
visibility
was welcomed.
5.5.
Our terminal operations staff and volunteers made particular efforts to identify vulnerable passengers such as families with young children, older people and passengers with reduced mobility, directing them to designated comfort zones with camp beds, drinking water, food snacks and access to 24-hour TV news. In some instances, we organised hotel accommodation at the airport. We also ensured that passengers stranded abroad did not receive additional car-parking charges.
6.
Review and l
essons learnt
6.1.
Each post-snow review generates lessons to be learnt and these shape our future planning and preparation. Each review also highlights where we undertook best practice and exceptional performance. We have a comprehensive Airport Snow Plan which is reviewed and agreed annually with our airlines, business partners and the emergency services. Our plan incorporated significant learning from snow events in winter 2009/10 and visits to other airports, including Oslo, Helsinki and Stockholm Arlanda. Based on this we committed to invest a total of £8
million in new snow equipment
.
6.2.
In accordance with our Airport Snow Plan we worked very closely with our airlines, their handling agents and other airport partners, such as UKBA, to make joint decisions during the snow periods. We enjoyed strong support and collaboration from our airport partners and they will play a full and active role in implementing the lesson learnt from our recent experience and optimising our plans for the future.
6.3.
Following winter 2009/10 we reviewed the processes for communicating flight status from handling agents and airlines to enable general messages on the airport status to be viewed by passengers. We improved direct access to Met Office and Hubcast weather forecast data.
6.4.
We also made improvements to our welfare plans for passengers and the communication with associated support groups. We enhanced our staff volunteer processes to ensure clarity on roles, tasks, communication structures and resourcing.
6.5.
Prior to the snow
events
we had been reviewing our CMT structure.
Gatwick
historically
had a ‘Snow Cell’ to co-ordinate the
joint
response to clearing
our
airfield and returning it to normal operations
in the event of adverse weather
. Following the first period of heavy snowfall we introduced a number of
changes
which were in place by
18 December
including the amalgamation of
the Snow Cell
with the
‘Silver Command’ level of Gatwick’s
contingency process.
Th
is
improve
d the speed and efficiency of
decision making and
communication.
6.6.
Disruption to the transport network, and rail services in particular, was a significant issue during the recent snow events, particularly the first period. Gatwick rail station is the busiest airport rail station in the UK, with some 12 million journeys each year. Given the severe nature of the conditions a certain amount of rail disruption was inevitable. However, in early December this continued for some time after we had reopened the airport and the road system was cleared.
6.7.
This impacted passengers’ journeys to and from Gatwick but also, importantly, the ability for airport staff to travel to work. This created an additional constraint on our ability to return to a full operating schedule and caused significant overcrowding at Gatwick station. We will meet with the train operating companies and Network Rail to review this situation.
7.
Conclusion
7.1.
The safety of passengers and airport users will always be our main priority during any adverse weather situation. Our decisions are, and will be, driven by concern for their welfare. We sought to address the impact of the two
snow periods in the final weeks of last year in a professional manner. We worked closely with our airlines and other airport partners to reopen the airfield as soon as it was safe to do so. Our communication activities both to passengers and external audiences were managed effectively.
7.2.
During the first snow period we spoke with Dr David Quarmby, who the Transport Secretary commissioned to carry out an audit on his earlier Winter Resilience Review.
In his report,
Dr Quarmby said he was aware the Ga
twick area had been subject to unprecedented weather systems
and
he indicated
that
he believed we
had done
everything
possible
to address the situation.
7.3.
Looking ahead, there may well be more snowfall
before the winter season ends.
We
have made significant investments to optimise our ability to manage such events and
will work with our partners, on and off the airport campus, to minimise disruption to operations and any inconvenience to passengers. However, it should be recognised, that even with sound preparations and enhanced snow clearing
equipment
,
it is likely that
heavy and persistent snow
events
in the future will cause
some disruption to normal
operations
at
Gatwick
A
irport
.
February 2011
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