Tynwald is Biggest Issue for Airlines

Forget the weather, forget issues with air traffic control, discussions in Tynwald are the biggest issue for airlines flying in and out of the island.

DoI Minister Chris Thomas was quizzed on issues at the airport in today’s Keys sitting by several MHKs.

Ronaldsway has come under fire from hundreds of islanders and visitors in recent weeks, as a shortage of air traffic controllers has led to flight cancellations.

As of June 12, the airport has been operating on system of breaks throughout the day to accommodate training and mandated fatigue breaks.

Mr Thomas said: ‘Unfortunately, there is limited flexibility around these mandated breaks as they are a regulatory requirement, non-compliance puts the individual controllers licence at risk and could incur regulatory sanctions against the airport.

‘It’s not possible for the department to simply decide to delay a break by a few minutes to accommodate an aircraft’s landing or departure.’

He added that the airport has worked with airlines to minimise the disruption to breaks, however this has led to issues of flights being delayed coming in or out of Ronaldsway due to issues elsewhere putting the planes behind schedule.

As pointed out by Douglas North MHK David Ashford, and much social media comment over the weekend, the reality is that the actual closure times are 15 minutes before the rest periods.

Mr Ashford pointed out that across an average week, there are 10 flights that fall within that 15 minute window, while there are ‘four a week that actually cannot meet their timetable because they fall within the published cutoff’.

Thanking Mr Ashford for his diligence, Mr Thomas said that the 15 minutes is factored in to allow for an emergency return to the airport, but is something that he said was ‘in the control of the airlines’.

Asked further on the issues, Mr Thomas read from a message that Loganair sent its customers, which said that ‘some’ of the issues facing its flights are because of the need to close the runway and that it was working with the airport to minis the impact of the closures.

He added: ‘The main point is, I think that demonstrates that the Isle of Man airport is working with all of the airlines, and it’s working with other airports and it’s doing everything it possibly can to manage our way out of this unfortunate situation we’re in.’

Poor Summer

Admitting islanders will face a bad summer of air travel issues (that news you can hear is the Steam Packet board cheering), Mr Thomas pointed out that issues with ATC across all of Europe, the Ukraine Russia war and other airline related difficulties are all contributing to this.

Turning to the issue of managing relationships with airlines, Mr Thomas said: ‘Managing Airlines is is very important in that context, and no tans are used before no terms there is regular dialogue between airlines and the airport management. Does that mean that the director of the irport spoke to every member of cabin crew and every member of flight deck with every airline flying in and out of the Isle of Man?

‘No, it doesn’t. They didn’t ask their opinion about this. But the airlines are fully involved in the message I’ve just read out from Loganair at the highest level after meeting in the Isle of Man is a very important message which is that, I think if you were to ask an airline, what’s the biggest issue of flying in and out of the Isle of Man, they might say the discussions in Tynwald.’