WHILE scheduled departures and arrivals at the Airport had mostly returned to normal on Monday following days of disruption, officials have highlighted the challenges posed by foggy conditions.
Thousands of people were affected as fog blanketed the Island on Christmas Eve, with further delays and cancellations hitting those who had planned to travel between Boxing Day and Sunday, as weather-related restrictions were in place at several UK airports.
The festive disruption followed a near-total shutdown in November as a result of fog.
Head of air navigation Paul Strudwick spoke to the JEP earlier this month to outline some of the challenges involved.
“If you were building Jersey Airport today and you were looking for a site, you wouldn’t build it here – but it is where it is,” he said.
Mr Strudwick said that many of the issues related to the topography of the Airport, with a steep cliff at the St Ouen’s Bay end of the runway, and St Peter’s Valley lying close to the eastern end.
The sharp differences in altitude between the Airport and surrounding land limit the places where navigation lights can be sited, as having such lighting on raised platforms towering above St Ouen’s Bay would be both challenging to install and aesthetically unacceptable to most Islanders, he added, while there were also “obstacles”, including St Peter’s Church, on both sides of the runway.
“The terrain and the obstacles around are difficult to manage and do anything about. They are just as important as the technology that we use,” Mr Strudwick said. “We do have cliffs to either side, and they create problems.
“We do have close proximity of other obstacles because it’s a small island and I’m sure people wouldn’t be too impressed if we started talking about knocking some of these historical buildings down just because people wanted the land in the [small] number of days when we get fog per year.”
Jersey has a category-one Instrument Landing System, including defined minimum heights at which a plane can be flown before the pilot is committed to a landing, as well as horizontal ranges for visibility.
Other airports have category two or three, but upgrades to Jersey’s ILS are unlikely in the near future.
“We would be very keen, if we could, to make things better,” Mr Strudwick said. “It’s assessed constantly because we’re trying to provide a service, plus we use the services ourselves, so we don’t like to be fogged in either, so we would absolutely love it if we could improve services.
“Over time, I’m hoping that, with new technology, it will happen, but it does take a long time. It’s definitely not cheap, and also it’s a partnership with all our business partners.”
After difficulties caused immediately before and after Christmas by fog in Jersey and the resulting poor visibility, the improved weather seen in the Island over the weekend was matched with deteriorating conditions elsewhere, with London Gatwick Airport being particularly badly affected, leading to a number of cancellations by both easyJet and British Airways.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “We were affected by a three-day disruption caused by low-visibility weather conditions in London Gatwick. This has meant that air traffic control has had to limit the number of aircraft that can arrive and depart, which has sadly led to delays and cancellations. The safety of our passengers and crew is our highest priority, and we thank you for your understanding.”
lMore information regarding weather disruption is available at jerseyairport.com/flight/weather
