"Who wants to sleep in Terminal 5?"

[randomness]

I have often joked that there should be a game called "Who wants to sleep in Terminal 5?" featuring Heathrow Airport, along the lines of The M25 game.

This however is neither a game nor a joke for the unfortunate would-be passengers, some of whom did sleep in Terminal 5 yesterday:


The linked article includes this quote in a sidebar:

"You get two inches of snow? We get two feet" says a man from up state New York, adding that the disruption it causes here makes him "giggle".

There was also this:

But one Australian man on his way to Geneva, who did not want to be identified, saw the lighter side of the chaos.

"We've spoken to more reporters than BA staff," he said. "Does it come as a great surprise that it snows in the northern hemisphere?"

I guess it surprises some British aviation executives.

This is absurd. It is getting to the point where snow shows up each winter, and every time it does Heathrow fails to cope. Heathrow Airport Holdings, Ltd. needs to step up and take this problem seriously. That Wikipedia article on the company includes the section "Snow Crisis":

BAA* has been accused of under-investing in snow and ice-fighting technology at Heathrow, which led to runway closures and severe delays in December 2010.[25] Heathrow plans to spend just £3.5 million on this technology between 2010 and 2014, compared with spending of £8 million during the same period at Gatwick, an airport half its size.

Snow falling on airports is a well-understood problem solved by many busy airports. If they don't feel like they want to learn from Chicago O'Hare, they might ask their nice Commonwealth bretheren who run Toronto Pearson, or their friendly EU partners who operate Copenhagen Kastrup.


More than four hundred flights cancelled after two inches of snow. Ridiculous.

*BAA changed its name to Heathrow Airport Holdings, Ltd. last year.

Comments

[irielle.livejournal.com]

I was in England in 2010 during that snowstorm, and it was really strange for someone coming from Wisconsin! It wasn't just the planes -- the trains were shutting down too and people were in a panic. I know that you can't expect communities that don't have a lot of snow to make the same investments our communities make, but major airports in the Northern hemisphere ought to be able to handle 2 inches of snow. Goodness.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

Holy cats! It's mildly alarming that they all appear to have the same sleeping mat, which suggests that the airport has them to issue.

Then again, the last time I slept in Terminal 5 (how sad that I can use that phrase!) there were clearly a lot of people that had practice at it.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Same sleeping mat, yes, and some of them seem to have been issued standard yellow blankets. You're right that it's mildly alarming. The airport authorities appear to be prepared for mass sleep-ins, but not for things that might cause mass sleep-ins.

the last time I slept in Terminal 5 (how sad that I can use that phrase!)

I agree. It is sad that you can use that phrase, and even sadder that there are many people with more experience of that than you.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

On the flip side, when I had to overnight there (which I'd really rather not have done), there were lots and lots of people, including many families, who had planned for it and were clearly following a well-practiced routine. Presumably it was the case for all of us that the pricing for local lodging was not even remotely tractable.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

The problem with the hotels near Heathrow is that when things go pear-shaped at the airport, they raise their prices. I think I read an article during the recent unpleasantness that one of the hotels jacked up its price to something like £259 per night. During normal times I've been able to get a room quite easily in the £50-60 range, which is irritating but is kind of the way hotel prices are in London nowadays.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Heh... Does it cost Heathrow Airport Holdings anything when everybody has to sleep over?

And for that matter, how come every driver in Boston forgets how to drive in snow over the summer?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Does it cost Heathrow Airport Holdings anything when everybody has to sleep over?

I imagine cancelled flights don't pay landing fees as they didn't land. So they do have an incentive to get the flights moving, even if they have no direct incentive to prevent mass sleep-ins.

how come every driver in Boston forgets how to drive in snow over the summer?

I actually have a theory that all drivers collectively forget how to drive in snow (or rain*, or what have you) given a long enough period of time to forget. This is why Bostonians screw up badly in the first snowstorm of the winter, and why drivers from Atlanta, Texas, and England screw up badly in every snowstorm. Also, it would explain why drivers who live in places with short summers and long snowy periods, like Iceland, generally don't mess up in snow.

I'm not sure how long the forgetting period is but I'm guessing it's at least six months.

*I include rain because Los Angelenos for example are famously awful drivers in the rain, which they only see during the rainy season.