Charter aircraft handling

cml387

Hi
Hoping to get some info from those in the know.
Do small charter company aircraft (as used by some holiday companies) end up sucking on the hind teat when it comes to ground handling facilities, especially at busy times?

I ask because we had a two hour delay to get our bags in Naples (I know:)) which was explained as a logistics problem due to cancelled flights the previous day. The Aer Lingus flight which landed just after us had no such problems.

Then when we were returning the incoming flight was late leaving Dublin (explained as "slot problems") Also due to a radar issue with Rome ATC we were further delayed, eventually 2 hours late into Dublin
Again, the Aer Lingus flight from Naples arrived ten minutes after it's scheduled arrival.
There was nearly an hour waiting for bags to arrive on the belt in Dublin.

You will probably tell me I am creating a conspiracy theory.:D

L1011

I'd guess it's just a case of different handlers rather than charter flights being pushed back.

In Dublin Aer Lingus handle their own bags and currently nobody elses; ditto Ryanair. Otherwise there are three or four ground handling firms that do the rest so the Dublin performance of one isn't connected to the other

Naples seem to have 3, Menzies is one who Aer Lingus use virtually everywhere when available; charter operator could use someone else.

Irish Steve

It may have changed now, a good few years ago, while the charter airlines didn't get put to the back of the queue as such, the major carriers tended to get a higher priority, partly because they were year round, and partly because they paid more to ensure the quality of service. Then, any of the following reasons in the summer months can result in problems.

Flights are delayed (for all sorts of reasons), so the number of crews available doesn't meet the demand at that time.

More than the expected number of a particular type of aircraft arrive together, and there's not enough specialist equipment to be able to do things like push back. This was a huge problem at one time in Dublin when Spanair operated the MD80 family, there was only one push back bar and bypass pin available, so if 3 were in together, and leaving at the same sort of time, deciding who to push next got "interesting".

The battery powered tugs and milk floats used to go in and out with bags have not been charged for long enough, so at certain times of the day, they are in "limp" mode, and won't travel at any worthwhile speed, or pull the normal load. That causes lots of delays to getting bags in and out of a very badly designed facility at Dublin.

If there are delays, there can be a significant shortage of baggage carts, so several members of the crew for a flight end up spending too long scouring the airfield for a (serviceable) cart that someone has missed.

The aircraft that arrives is not the type that was scheduled to operate the flight. If that means finding different steps, and container handling equipment, at certain times, that's a problem, there's only so many highloaders to go round, and an additional wide body that is not expected can be a big problem to get off loaded and re loaded, even more so if there are no baggage containers for that airline on the airfield, which means that no bags can be loaded until the arriving bags have been put up the belts and the containers returned to the aircraft.

I'm sure others will be able to add to this list, getting flights in and out on time requires some considerable skills, as well as a lot of specialist equipment, and both the airlines and the ground handling companies are reluctant to pay an appropriate rate for those skills, with the result that too often, things don't go the way that the passengers might expect.

cml387

That's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know.
I know that our travel company were insisting that the problems were beyond there control, I'd say they were correct in that.
I remember in Pisa one year we were stuck on the plane for an hour because the pilot had taken a wrong turn and was waiting for a tug.

faoiarvok

cml387 wrote: »

Then when we were returning the incoming flight was late leaving Dublin (explained as "slot problems")

Slots are imposed to prevent too many aircraft arriving at the same destination or passing through the same section of airspace at the same time, nothing to do with pecking order of who gets to take off first. It’s cheaper, safer and better for the environment to delay on the ground rather than in the air. The flow control system is fair and equitable, assigning slots based on when flights were scheduled and are ready to depart. The only flights that jump the queue are medevac, flights carrying heads of state or flights operated by state bodies/military IIRC. Alternatively, normal flights that have a slot but are ready to depart may get to go early if there’s a gap that no one else is ready to jump into. That can lead to the frustrating situation where passengers are rushed on board just to sit and wait for an hour or two.

So assuming the slot explanation was honest, the fact that it was a charter operator shouldn’t have had any bearing.