Airport failures led to snow chaos

CHRISTMAS NIGHTMARE WAS A CATALOGUE OF ERRORS WHICH SNOWBALLED AS BOTH AIRPORT AND AIRLINES FAILED TO DO THEIR JOBS THE SNOW chaos that left thousands stranded at Paris Charles de Gaulle

Airport in the run-up to Christmas has been blamed on “operational failure”, with mistakes made on all sides. Transport and ecology minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said both airport

operator Aéroports de Paris (ADP) and the airlines failed their passengers. ADP did not have enough de-icing capacity for planes and was too slow in telling airlines about the problems; in

turn, the airlines failed to let passengers know what was going on, which meant 2,000 stranded and sleeping in the terminal buildings. Ms Kosciusko-Morizet said the Conseil Général de

l'Environnement et du Développement Durable inquiry identified specific failures and she was imposing changes so that next winter would not see the same problems. The inquiry found that

ADP knew in early December about possible difficulties with de-icing, but failed to do anything about it; when it tried to get more stocks, ADP found that tankers were blocked on snow-hit

roads. Now it is to invest €60m to increase stocks of glycol de-icer and to create more de-icing bays. It will absorb the costs with no increase in fees. A major part of the money - €48m -

will go to Charles de Gaulle airport, which will hold 10 days of glycol stock as against the present six. The de-icer will also be stored closer to the airports. ADP did not sound the alarm

until December 23, which forced the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile to start to cancel flights, although passengers were already in the airports. Airlines often did not find out

what was going on until passengers had boarded their planes, which then had to return to the terminal. However, many airlines failed to take responsibility for the passengers. They have

been told to improve communication and to make more use of text messages to make direct contact in the case of problems. Better use will also be made of the internet, with warnings on the

websites and on social networks. However, Ms Kosciusko-Morizet said she was not in the “business of making scapegoats” and no sanctions would be imposed, although the airports and airlines

had to make changes to prevent a repeat. Photo: Louis Ogonowski