Gatwick airport closed (Hypothetical)

Thanks EGNM for the most comprehensive answer. It always surprises me how long it takes to clear a disabled aircraft from an active runway especially when there are no serious injuries.

Most Long haul would probly can to manchester , i guess airlines that have got bases at other london airports would most likely go there if possibly.

Like easyjet would go to luton .

As soon as an incident is declared at an airfield, Eurocontrol will issue a Zero-Rate slot application, basically meaning that any aircraft waiting to depart to, in this case Gatwick, will have their flightplan suspended until further notice, and therefore that are unable to depart for LGW. You would have two options here, first would be to cancel and refile to a differant destination. This often happens with BRT flights into MAN when a restricition is put into place due fog, so only operators whose aircraft can land in 200m for example are allowed to depart. If LBA is clear they can flightplan to go here. This makes sure that each airport has the capacity to accept any inbound flights that are re-routed, as say for example LGW was closed, and everyone was intending to divert to BOH it wouldn’t be able to cope. With a re-routing you would also have to change alternates and therefore have sufficient fuel to divert away from a potential problem. (eg if it was snowing in the North of the UK you may have to change your alternate from Manchester as a worse case scenario to Gatwick or Prestwick -this would be based on their forecast’s being workable). The second option is to sit an wait it out – it’s unlikely to be known straight away how long the airfield will be closed for.

Most operators will have commercial preferances as to alternates which usually means they hay have another representation there – either logistically, engineering or even a base. On a small scale Manx2 would usually divert to Blackpool from Leeds, even if closer alternates of MAN, DSA or HUY were available, whilst Atlas Air’s primary divert from PIK may be MAN rather than GLA or EDI.

In terms of aircraft that are already airborne they would obviously have to divert. LHR would be a virtually no go area, due it’s heavy traffic flows, and parking problems once you get down. For larger operators it would be unlikely that would get there aircraft all in the same place, so Easy may share between BOH, BRS and LTN for example, BA the same perhaps also utilising STN. Charter operators and Long-haul operators are more likely to head towards BHX and MAN. Those coming from Transatlantic flights would be flying past these airfields and may simply be able to land, refuel, and await an improvement (and as mentioned above most would have a representation here). Some operators (as mentioned above by RDC1000) may even make the choice to divert back to origin (such as BA’s Shuttle flights or Other regional operators) to protect the onward flying programme, and the pax could then be re-accomodated later, or coached to the destination.

Also – best remember that if it was LGW, BOH would be closed overnight (it opens for short periods for the mail operations which are worked around controller rest), as could MSE. If it was LBA you’d presently loose the options of MME, DSA, BLK, and LPL simultainiously at certain times of night!

There are so many differant scenarios and complications in any given circumstance that it is hard to predict how any given day will fall!

Prior to ILS developemnts to a higher level, when LHR/LGW were seriously fogbound, MAN was the major diversionary airport, particulalry for long haul services. With the exception of those already stacked (for example if there was an accident) then MAN would probably take a lot of the long haul aircraft, particulalry those arriving from the US.

What you’ve also got to remember is that if the Airport were closed for several hours, then many European and Domestic services could be held on the ground at their origin without having to consider options of diversion. Therefore the only aircraft to consider (regardless of how busy LGW is overall) are those actually flying at the time something happens. Depending upon location, these may even be diverted back to their origin (likely to be an airline decision, particulalry if they are based at the origin airport).

I would imagine that any aircraft bigger than a 757 would be Manchester bound and the rest to fit into Bournemouth (commonly used during wx diversions) & Manston, however airlines like Flybe could choose, space permitting, Southampton given that it’s a base for them. If it became that bad, then surely airlines would just not depart from their destination airports until Gatwick re-opened.

Manchester proberly biggest airport outside of london in the UK and has plenty of stand space during the day.

I think Manchester is a little bit too far away, although for an airline who serves both LGW and MAN, such as US Airways, they may divert to MAN as they have a station there.

When you look at Gatwicks location draw a radious of one hundered miles from Gatwick and see what airport are available there are many.

For the bigger aircraft Manston could be one it does not matter if it takes time to unload the passengers they are on the ground not going round if they could for hours.

Bournemouth is another good diversion the old north south runway to park on.

It all depends where the aircraft are at the time of airport closure on where the could go to some whould be on route so divert to an airfield where they have handling to wait with aircraft in the hold is a differant matter and it could come down to ops on where they would like if possible to go.

So until it happens it cannot be fully answered and the time of day plays a big part in all of this as well.

Manchester proberly biggest airport outside of london in the UK and has plenty of stand space during the day.