Bring it on Mr Frost – How Heathrow can handle the winter
After last year’s cold winter bringing vast amounts of snow and causes unprecedented impact on the UK’s airports, an enquiry was started to find what could be done to avoid such travel misery from striking again.
In a recent BAA press release they have stated what they plan to do – which involved invest £32 million into various schemes.
The key points in their press release were:
- Tripled the number of vehicles available for snow clearance compared to December 2010, with a total fleet of 185 vehicles.
- Increased the total number of staff available for snow clearance from 117 to 468 per shift.
- Introduced a new ‘Reservist’ role which will see up to 950 non-operational staff deployed to terminals to help passengers during disruption.
- Agreed with airlines, NATS and ACL (the company responsible for allocating slots at Heathrow) a new process for managing the necessary flight cancellations during disruption so that passengers receive more timely and accurate information about whether their flight is operating.
- Initiated plans for a new airport control centre.
- Improved the support and information we provide to passengers during disruption.
All in all, this should mean if things do get chilly they are 3x as prepared as every.