What happens if a runway closes?

[Ozgirl75]

So, my parents are flying back to the U.K. from Australia on Tuesday, they’ll land mid morning on Wednesday via Dubai and I saw that Gatwick closed its runways. So I wondered, what happens to the flights that are already on their way, and from quite a long way away? Diverted? And then what?
im not worried about them as they’re able to deal fine with whatever happens, I just wondered really.

They divert the flight to an airport that has capacity and an open and large enough runway. If that was Manchester then they’d bus them from Manchester. If it’s Paris or Amsterdam they’ll have to wait until there is capacity to transfer them onward by plane.

Oh that doesn’t sound too bad then. At least they’re arriving in the morning so they’ll have plenty of time to get home.
I assume they give priority to the planes that have come a long way because they can’t turn back.

Yep. What PP said. Highly unlikely that Gatwick's runways would still be closed by then so better happening now - unfortunately our aviation sector is not equipped to deal with snowfall.

I remember many use ago spending New Year's Eve in the international airport hotel in Dublin because we couldn't land at Heathrow.

Every flight has planned alternative airports to go to in the event that something (in this case weather) happens. Factors taken into account would be more so size of aircraft and whether they can land there would be the main thing - eg Emirates won't divert to Southampton or Southend

Yes I’m assuming by then that they’ll have been able to clear the snow and grit the runway etc
Theyre surprisingly calm about it, it just got me wondering how they dealt with hundreds of passengers in the wrong place

Also the planned divert airports will usually be other where the airline also has a base and staff so it's quicker and easier to deal with the passengers. This may seem random and be geographically further away. Clearly in an emergency, they wouldn't wait though.

yes, divert or circle if runway opening is imminent.

either way, keep an eye on announcements. many trains are cancelled and roads gridlocked due to weather too.

good luck!

I flew in to Manchester on Saturday and if the runway had remained closed, it would have been rerouted to Heathrow (A380, massive plane that can't land at any airport).

Incredibly luckily we were the 1st plane allowed to land at Manchester that day, which would have been about noon. They had snow ploughs and other clearing equipment out, on the runway.

Presumably the airline assists with getting people back to their original destinations. I had an airline car booked to get me home from the airport so I assumed they would have just put me in one of their cars at Heathrow instead. Not so easy for those with vehicles parked at the original airport or someone local picking them up. Does the airline arrange transport to get passengers to the original airport?

@LubaLuca You we're lucky to get a car straight home. Typically it is a coach to the original airport (obvs if within driving distance) which is a complete pain. It can't depart until everyone had has collected their baggage and found the coach. Inevitably people go via the shop, the loo and so on. Then it has to make toilet stops if a long journey. On the back of an already disrupted journey, is a painful end.

The airports and airlines will be well used to this procedure

Beaware though that if you are due to land at a London airport and are diverted to another London airport the airline deem they have got you to London and you have to make your own way to your starting point. Even if you started at Stanstef and end up at Gatwick.
My DH fly's a lot he is often divert due to missing curfews and will get diverted to Heathrow or East Midlands.

Oh well hopefully it will be ok, it sounds like the weather took everyone by surprise!

Gatwick is operating this AM, no major problems forecast with the weather this side of Wednesday so fingers crossed.

The procedures for handling all this are well practised and get a real world run through every few years !!!!

It's generally regarded as a bit sub-optimal to simply have aircraft turn up and circle, hoping for the runway to be cleared.. Ideally once the airport authorities realise runway closures are on the cards Long Haul flights inbound to places like London get notified of a need to divert a long way out and so can end up being very dispersed across Europe.

As has been said upthread where aircraft divert to may not just be "down the road", it depends on several things, such weather, airport handling capacity and other factors.

There was one snow/fog event a few years back where inbound Long Haul flights to London ended up in Scotland, Southern France, Spain and across a lot of central Europe....everybody onboard those made it back to London about 24 hours late.

Thats great news that it all seems to be operating ok. I’m sure the worst bit of their journey will be the drive home as they live down a rural lane in the middle of Sussex!