BRU. Hours to de-ice on Nov 30.

[Homo Aeroportus]

Arrived, unusually, on time this morning to catch SN3175 to FCO.
STD 0735LT.

Boarding on time, about 60% LF, 3 C, 17 Flex, doors closed then "Captain speaking" : expect 50 min delay due to queue for de-icing We're N° 7.

0855 : push-back stand 145.
0905 : engine start
0923 : enter de-icing pad (stand 323 near Ethiopian.
0935 : exit de-icing
0944 : T/O RWY 07R (25R-07L closed, 02 for arrivals).
1128 Ldg FCO RWY 16L

Flight Care (do they really ?) de-iced about 5 A/C per hour. Two trucks, one on each side of A/C as std.
There were two other trucks parked next to the pad, engines on. Could it be they kep these just in case they had a peak in demand ?

How come it took so long?
Several flights were canclled this morning (LH, FRA & MUC, ...) so the demand on de/-anti-icing was not even as high as it could have been.

Anybody any clue on this.

I'm still in FCO, yeah return SN3184 delayed, and can't see much on BAC web site that went again in overflow.

Thanks.

H.A.

[regi]

I suppose there will be no de icing at Rome

[cnc]

the deicing trucks can only do a couple planes before having to refill the tanks again and it takes about 30 min to warm the fluids in the truck. btw there's also the deicing platform.
Also the deicing is done by the same people who do the pushback/interphone/towing so there's a good possibility (knowing flightcare) that there was a shortage on trained people

[theeuropean]

Last night my mother flew with Olympic Air to Athens and they were waiting inside the plane for 3.5 hours before they took off - that's longer than the actual flight! But I saw many delays and cancellations...what can we expect for the rest of the week, weather wise?

[cnc]

i'd say a lot more delays in the next couple days since it going to get colder

[sn26567]

Full set of pictures of deicing operations taken on 30 Nov: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brusselsai ... 500267848/

[b.lufthansa]

Just accept it, it's normal. it has been last year: viewtopic.php?p=225514#p225514 and it will be next year. it will never change!

[airazurxtror]

I took the 06.55 flight CRL-Verona yesterday; the plane was covered by snow, deiced at its parking place in less than 15 minutes, and departed only a few minutes late; all the earlier morning flights had departed on time or nearly.
After a full day of flying, the evening Bergamo-CRL arrived at BGY 15 minutes late, and was back at CRL on time.

[Atlantis]

with all respect but you can't compare CRL with BRU in this case. BRU has a lot more traffic and much bigger aircraft to handle then CRL.

BRU was prepared and never closed due to weather conditions. Some airports in our neighborhoud did which was the reasone that some flights were cancelled.
You can't de-ice aircraft one hour before their flight and you can't have handling trucks for each flight.

You have to cope with these kind of delays, but don't forget, better a safe flight then a no de-iced flight.

[jan_olieslagers]

i'd say a lot more delays in the next couple days since it going to get colder

More cold doesn't always mean more ice.

[RCMike]

In my opinion, during the last days I noticed that Brussels Airport invested a lot of money in their winter ops this year. A lot of new vehicles on the tarmac...

[airazurxtror]

with all respect but you can't compare CRL with BRU in this case. BRU has a lot more traffic and much bigger aircraft to handle then CRL.

Yes, of course.
What I meant is that CRL has the means in relation to the size of its traffic and conditions, whereas BRU seems not to have - according to Homo aeroportus in the first post here above.

[tolipanebas]

De-icing means delays unfortunately especially during peak times as demand is far bigger than the capacity, but a lot comes down to organisation and infrastructure too and there I must say that BRU has pretty poor de-incing infrastructure indeed.

I mean, there isn't even a single dedicated de-icing bay around the airport, can you imagine!?

Other airports have large zones right near the thresholds where several de-icings can take place at once, but at BRU, de-icing needs to be done either at the gate (which takes a lot of time) or remotely on a taxiway if 25R/20 is used for take-off, or at the old gate 320 (old C pier) if 07R/02 is in use, meaning only 1 de-icing can be done at once....

All very very basic indeed and definitely NOT up to the best possible standards for an airport the size and geographical location of BRU, thus not really helping the airlines and handlers to minimize delays.

[regi]

Just got news from northern England. Employees cannot reach their workplace at Doncaster, Sheffield, Leeds etcetera because of the blizzards.
And than we don't even talk about aviation...

[theeuropean]

Gatwick and Geneva are closed until tomorrow morning.
In Brussels it is currently snowing, so maybe all those new machines and people working at Brussels Airport will be hard at work by the time the TV shows them this evening.

[euroflyer]

And others have their problems as well, hundreds of flights cancelled in FRA since Monday, many as well because of problems with de-icing. Few hundred pax slept in the terminals. Seems to be a 'special type of snow' this year (??), according to Fraport de-icing therefore needs double the time than normally. They always have wonderful innovative excuses. It actually stopped snowing in Monday evening already, but the freezing temperatures still require a lot of de-icing. My flight to BRU this morning however was not de-iced (but still nearly 1h late) and now I am in the train back to FRA, as all but one flights from BRU to FRA this afternoon / evening have been cancelled.

[theeuropean]

According to the facebook page of Brussels Airport they are expecting up to 2cm of snow per hour for tonight...

[NLmember]

I am sure it is not a problem which only BRU has.
I am working at AMS and the flight I handled had it's brakes released at 21:15 lt and was
airborne at 23:40 lt.

It was not only due to the de icing process, but certainly with snow and ice conditions.

Regards,
NLmember

[bxleu]

Related news article on BBC:
Heathrow's defence against winter
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11880204

[regi]

I am sure it is not a problem which only BRU has.
I am working at AMS and the flight I handled had it's brakes released at 21:15 lt and was
airborne at 23:40 lt.

It was not only due to the de icing process, but certainly with snow and ice conditions.

Regards,
NLmember

Yes, the Dutch media reported about 2,000 passengers staying overnight at the airport because of the weather problems ( and a bit because of some problems in Spain )