City of Derry Airport forced to shut!

Yep, the LTE flight to Palma just flew over allbeit nosier than Ryanair’s 737’s, i thought they would have been quieter. But thats besides the point

🙂

Sounds like a big shame.

I hope they can get it sorted soon

Repairs have been carried out and it will re-open as of midnight tonight although Ryanair aren’t resuming until Wednesday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6697549.stm

City airport cleared to re-open
A Northern Ireland airport closed last week after concerns were raised about safety standards will re-open from midnight.
City of Derry Airport was shut on Friday by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) due to a “systematic failure of safety management”.

An airport spokesman said they had completed a list of remedial works agreed with the CAA.

The airport was given the all-clear after a further inspection on Sunday.

Airport chief executive Seamus Devine said they wanted to apologise to all of their customers.

“It’s the last thing we wanted to happen and of course we accept a a large part of the responsibilty,” he said.

Throughout the weekend contractors were on site completing a number of improvements.

These included updating the bird management system by placing nets across culverts and ponds, repairs to the aircraft parking apron and minor drainage work carried out adjacent to the runway.

British Airways will operate its full programme of flights from the airport to Glasgow and Dublin.

Both First Choice and Falcon holidays will also resume their chartered services.

Ryanair flights to London Stansted, East Midlands, Glasgow Prestwick and Liverpool will operate from Wednesday.

Speaking earlier on Monday, Londonderry businessman Brendan Duddy said the situation at the airport was “unacceptable”.

“We in the private sector, we just don’t get away with that,” he said.

“This is public versus private. Derry City Council running an airport? Not on.”

I’ve only flown from the place once and it struck me as shambolic, with apparently 2 people for every job and the general impression was of an airport that was poorly organised, poorly managed and poorly maintained.

But then again as someone pointed out on local radio, Derry City Council probably knows as much about operating an airport as an airport operator would know about emptying bins and burying the dead, which I suspect is not much 😉

John

HERE HERE!!

I think they need to appoint an independant operator to run it on their behalf. It would still make money and probably more. I think to an extent they are stuck in a catch 22. They only will spend lots of money if they see more flights at the airport but the airlines wont put more flights in until there is proper expansion.

They need to rebuild like Belfast City did in 2000/2001.

I’m sure the solution to City of Derry’s woes is quite simple… more money from the British and Irish Government :rolleyes:

I’ve only flown from the place once and it struck me as shambolic, with apparently 2 people for every job and the general impression was of an airport that was poorly organised, poorly managed and poorly maintained.

But then again as someone pointed out on local radio, Derry City Council probably knows as much about operating an airport as an airport operator would know about emptying bins and burying the dead, which I suspect is not much 😉

John

Thats what happens when “the travelling community” do your tarmacing!!!!

Typically FR are cancelling and BA have moved to Belfast International with a replacement rail service. Im sure charters will move to Belfast International also.

Im surprised FR wouldnt even put a bus on to Dublin i know their reputation but it would prevent them giving refunds!

Lots of people saw this coming as some things up there were an absolute farce with a capital f! Like an 8 seater hovercraft 4 of which are fire fighters to run the hovercraft! Not much help is a 140 seater FR crashes into the mud!

Also a quote from the local mayor “we have flown 1 million passengers very safely over the last four years”.

Bar the 140 who landed at the wrong airport due to badly timed work on the airports range of navigation systems (well and the crew onboard but with ILS would not have happened i think)!

The way I have been told it all happened is:

Airport seeks expansion and claims good safety record
To show the public safety is top priority it calls in CAA for audit to show how good it is
CAA do the audit of the airport and find it was well below standards and shut airport
Airports expansion plans not looking too rosy now!

The last Ryanair flight was let in okay and it officially shut at 12 oclock last night.

Hope its open again soon though. I’m set for work experience there…

:confused: