Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
sphealey wrote:Having read several diversion accounts over the last 5 years I would say it is long past time for the airlines that fly the transpolar routes to fund adequate facilities at Goose Bay, Yellowknife, and perhaps a few other diversion sites to handle at least one full widebody diversion. Say a dormitory with sufficient beds, toilets, showers for 500 people, stocked with appropriate cold-weather clothing in various sizes, plus 4-6 transportation vehicles sufficient to move the passengers to/from the airport. Each of those towns have a high school; the dormitory could be located adjacent to that facility and the school district reimbursed to have its maintenance staff maintain it in a mothballed but operable state. These stories of airlines and small towns scrambling to find accommodation for 300-500 people on short notice with no facilities available will cease to be funny the first time a passenger freezes to death as a result.
(Gander and Bangor are different stories: both cities have enough resources locally and regionally to handle any foreseeable diversion [a family member having spent an unplanned 9 days in Newfoundland starting 11-Sep-2011 I've heard the accounts but even in that situation enough spaces were found]), but Labrador, the Northwest Territory, etc are a different story.
jetblueguy22 wrote:sphealey wrote:Having read several diversion accounts over the last 5 years I would say it is long past time for the airlines that fly the transpolar routes to fund adequate facilities at Goose Bay, Yellowknife, and perhaps a few other diversion sites to handle at least one full widebody diversion. Say a dormitory with sufficient beds, toilets, showers for 500 people, stocked with appropriate cold-weather clothing in various sizes, plus 4-6 transportation vehicles sufficient to move the passengers to/from the airport. Each of those towns have a high school; the dormitory could be located adjacent to that facility and the school district reimbursed to have its maintenance staff maintain it in a mothballed but operable state. These stories of airlines and small towns scrambling to find accommodation for 300-500 people on short notice with no facilities available will cease to be funny the first time a passenger freezes to death as a result.
(Gander and Bangor are different stories: both cities have enough resources locally and regionally to handle any foreseeable diversion [a family member having spent an unplanned 9 days in Newfoundland starting 11-Sep-2011 I've heard the accounts but even in that situation enough spaces were found]), but Labrador, the Northwest Territory, etc are a different story.
So this happening several times over 5 years means airlines should do it? In that time millions of commercial flights have been successfully completed.
This is something we keep getting back to on here lately. If you want to have AF have spare planes and spare crews available 24/7 ready to go, you need to pay for it. If you want perfect service in every way, you have to pay for it. And passengers time and time again prove, they aren't willing to pay for it.
FGITD wrote:Passengers meanwhile are better off stuck on the airplane.
FGITD wrote:I don't think many realize that many of these diversion airports....a CRJ could divert there, and they would barely be able to handle the passengers.