Archive for the ‘Aberdeen airport’ CategoryGrampian Police have handed their top parking safety honour to Aberdeen Airport’s new car park. Representatives from the Force were on site to hand over the official ‘Safer Parking Award’ for the newly opened short stay parking deck and the Priority Parking area. The airport already holds an existing award for the long stay car park. Gillian Stuart is the Contract Manager for APCOA (the car park operators) in Aberdeen. She said “We are delighted to have been awarded the Safe Parking Award for the Short Stay and Priority Parking car parks which are in addition to the award we currently hold for our Long Stay car park. “The team are very proud of this achievement as we work extremely hard to ensure the car park is safe, secure and clean as we realise how important these are to our customers. The award is only achieved following stringent assessments, by Grampian police and the BPA, of the management processes, physical measures and site security systems to maintain a safe and secure environment. Superintendent John Duncan from Grampian Police, who handed over the award, said “We applaud any initiative which helps to deter criminality and anti-social behaviour. “We are delighted to recognise the good work APCOA have done to improve their facilities at the airport and enhance safety for members of the public.” The car park was opened in September 2009 at a cost of almost £5 million, providing 500 new short stay spaces. Not long after, in October, the Priority area was opened to the public, complete with wider bays, the closest spaces to the terminal, and all fully undercover. The Priority service is already proving popular with the business community, among others, who are seeking the most convenient time-saving route through the airport. Passengers choosing to go for Priority Parking, now also get access to Priority Security as part of their deal. To book Aberdeen airport parking using an instant online parking price checker and Aberdeen airport hotels click on the links. The UK Border Agency is warning that travellers passing through UK ports could face possible delays and disruption due to strike action by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). The strike action is taking place on Monday 8 March and Tuesday 9 March. Lin Homer, the Border Agency’s Chief Executive, said: ‘We are disappointed that PCS members have voted in favour of industrial action. It means that the travelling public are likely to suffer disruption and delays at border control as a result of this two-day action. ‘We have robust plans in place to ensure that the essential work of the UK Border Agency is maintained and the border remains secure. UK border security will not be compromised by this industrial action. ‘We expect that people travelling into the country may experience some delays at border control, but we will work hard to keep these to a minimum and hope that passengers will welcome the commitment of those staff who will be working despite the strike action to ensure they are seen as quickly as possible. BAA is advising passengers to have their travel documents, including passports, ready and to use automatic e-passport gates where available. Eastern Airways has launched a Norwegian version of their website. www.easternairways.no is in Norwegian and should help Norwegian passengers book their flights from Stavanger and Bergen to both Aberdeen Airport and Newcastle Airport.
The bad weather has been blamed for January’s poor passenger numbers at BAA’s six UK airports. Each of the airports reported a drop in passenger numbers with Aberdeen suffering a 13.6% drop when compared with January 2009. In fact it was two of the Scottish airports which fared the worst with Glasgow seeing a drop of 12.2% and Edinburgh reporting a drop of 7.4%. Although, Edinburgh Airport is the only BAA airport which has seen a positive increase in passengers numbers, +0.5%, in a rolling 12 months – February 2009 to January 2010. Of BAA’s English airports, Southampton reported a 9.7% reduction in numbers, with Stansted dipping 5.6% and Heathrow faring best of all at just a 0.5% drop. Although the snow has had an impact on passenger numbers, the drop in numbers at Glasgow and Edinburgh has also been attributed to the collapse of Flyglobespan. Efforts are continuing at Aberdeen Airport to fill some of the gaps left behind following the collapse of Flyglobespan. The Scottish airline went into administration last December, leaving a number of destinations from the North-east un-served. From that day, teams in Aberdeen have been hard at work, to secure new carriers on a number of the routes. In January Thomas Cook confirmed they would take over the running of the Turkish destinations, namely Dalaman and Antalya. Since then the operator has also pledged to a limited programme between Aberdeen and Tenerife in the height of the summer season. Despite these just being rolled out on an ad-hoc charter basis, it is hoped that this frequency can increase. There are also ongoing discussions with operators on a number of leisure destinations for both summer and winter – as well as bringing in some brand new destinations. Airport Managing Director Kevin Brown explained why getting confirmation of a new route is a long process, he said “It can be more tricky than people might imagine due to the constraints that airlines and operators are under. Many of them have already secured and finalised their plans for this year, and did so many months ago, making it very difficult for them to alter their schedules. For that reason we are working closely with them to identify any possible opportunities. “We completely appreciate the value of these destinations to the North-east community and are making every effort to ensure that people can keep flying from their local airport to their favourite holiday destinations. “I am really proud of the work that the team here are doing behind the scenes, and I can assure passengers that we are confident about new announcements in the near future.” To book Aberdeen airport parking using an instant online parking price checker and Aberdeen airport hotels click on the links. Disruption is expected to flights to and from Ireland today due to industrial action by air traffic controllers in Ireland. Affected airports are Dublin and Shannon, which will see industrial action between the hours of 14:00 and 18:00, and Cork Airport where industrial action is expected to take place between the hours of 16:00 and 18:00. Ryanair has cancelled 52 flights due to the industrial action – check here for details of cancellations To check the status of your Aer Lingus flight click here For Aer Arann disruptions click here Snow is causing disruption to flights and there are several cancellations today. The below list is not comprehensive list but does offer information on some cancelled flights.
 Gatwick bound BA flight de-iced at Stansted What a nightmare for air travellers it has been recently. The snow has caused total chaos and the uncertainty of not knowing whether you could get to the airport, and once there, would you plane be able to take off, has been really stressful. I know from the emails I have received, and the comments made on this blog, that passengers have also been hampered by the lack of information coming from some airports and some airlines. Passengers making their way home to Britain also faced problems not knowing if their flights would land at their intended destination. There were quite a few diversions last week, even Glasgow Prestwick Airport took in 24 diversions from flights destined for Heathrow, Gatwick, Dublin, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh airports. The photo above shows a British Airways 747 being de-iced at Stansted on Friday. Bad weather forced the Gatwick bound jet to divert into Stansted after its long haul flight from Lagos, Nigeria. Flight update Although flights do appear to be getting back to normal, with the threat of more snow looming, we could still see more problems ahead. Anyone concerned about the status of their flight is advised to contact their airline and to monitor the flight departures boards on their airport website. Stories and suggestions If you have any stories about your travel experiences in the recent bad weather, or have any suggestions (polite ones!) that could help improve communications from the airports and airlines I love to hear them. Feel free to add them in the comments below or email me, thanks, Paula. Due to the snow there have been several flight cancellations today. The following airlines have published details of their cancelled flights: Eastern Airways check here for details http://www.easternairways.com/latest-news/weather-disruption-6-january-2010.html easyJet flight cancellations can been seen here http://easyjet.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/easyjet.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3708 Ryanair flight cancellations are available here http://www.ryanair.com/en/notices/gops/100105-SNOW_UK_05JAN10-GB British Airways – to check the status of your flight click here http://www.britishairways.com/travel/globalgateway.jsp/global/public/en_ For more information on flight status and lists of cancelled flights check the following links: British Airways – check flight status here Flybe cancellations listed here: Eastern Airways cancellations check here Virgin Atlantic check flight status here easyJet cancellations check here Ryanair – a list of cancelled flights can be found here |
