Three Malta flights cancelled as snow closes UK airports

Thomas Borg-Windebank

Dec 1st 2010, 19:37

This is only because there is no other flight with easyJet / Ryanair on that day. As in my previous post, if I wanted to, I could have changed my flight to Stansted (flight arriving 2 hours after my flight to Gatwick was scheduled to land) or Luton. There are 5 flights a day Amsterdam-Gatwick, 3 a day Ams-Luton and 4 a day Ams-Stansted with easyJet, it was my own decision to fly tomorrow instead since it was not so important for me to be there today. Air Malta is not doing anyone a massive favour by taking people to Heathrow, it's just they have flights going to other London airports from Malta on the same day. If there was an easyJet flight to another London airport from Malta on the same day, you would have the right to amend your booking free of charge and go on that one (as long as seats are available - same as with Air Malta : priority given to those who purchased tickets for the actual flight).

j grech

Dec 2nd 2010, 18:30

airmalta helping ? i think not. my neices flight was cancelled on sunday her ticket was with ryanair at a cost of EURO 65 her holiday had finnished, last few euros spent on souvineers and accomodation finnished advised to take a flight with airmalta cost EURO 389 so many people were left stranded with no accomodation and no money not even to buy a drink or food as they thought they would be home before their next meal time, also the airport does not haved areas where a family could sit / lay a sleeping toddler or a lounge area to take the now homeless stranded passengers while they await other arrangements, airmalta would be doing none of these passengers any favours with their fancy prices,

Albert Farrugia

Dec 1st 2010, 10:56

..in this case its the AIRPORT which is closed. Not the airline cancelling a flight. If the airport authorities decide that it would be impractical to all the time free the runway and taxyways and the aircraft themselves of ice and snow...they would invariably decide to close the airport.

M. Zarb

Dec 1st 2010, 11:07

Shame you didn't read the first part of the sentence you quoted: "Gatwick Airport has been closed, with all departures and arrivals halted until further notice as snow continues to grip Britain."

I would be very, very surprised if Air Malta managed to land in Gatwick Airport, as the official website and Twitter feed currently state that 'there are currently no departing and arriving flights at Gatwick' - until at least 6am tomorrow morning.

Any airline that flies in this kind of weather is incredibly irresponsible. Please remember that even if an airport opens its runways, passengers still have to make risky journeys out of the airport to reach their final destination, and many, many roads in the UK are closed. Police have issued a 'do not travel' warning.

Also FYI, Air Malta cancelled flights to Gatwick this morning, much like easyJet did.

Thank you, to all the airlines that have adhered to airport rules. You might have inconvenienced me (I was due to travel tonight), but at least you're not putting my life at risk.

N. Tabone

Dec 1st 2010, 11:25

Uninformed.

When road access around the airport (LGW) is severely restricted, cabin crew/flight deck crew/check-in staff cannot get to the airport. So flights are cancelled.

No such restrictions at Luqa this morning. So, a good thing too, Malta based flights (of any airline) operate.

Alex Ellul

Dec 1st 2010, 12:29

Bilderberg Group discusses “Global Cooling” at 2010 meeting
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/09/26/bilderberg-group-discusses-global-cooling-at-2010-meeting/
The 58th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Sitges, Spain 3 – 6 June 2010. The Conference will deal mainly with Financial Reform, Security, Cyber Technology, Energy, Pakistan, Afghanistan, World Food Problem, GLOBAL COOLING, Social Networking, Medical Science, EU-US relations.

Paul Smith

Dec 1st 2010, 15:35

Thank you

Please tell all the global waring numpties that 2010 was the hottest year ever recorded. North Europe is frozen, the climate is changing. Anyone whom does not believe that burning 300 years worth of fossil fuels has not effected the planets climate does not deserve being mentioned in such a good newspaper

I new it would not be long until the climate denying nutters crawled out of bed

Alex Ellul

Dec 1st 2010, 16:36

Paul, don't ask me, ask the Bilderberg group: They have discussed GLOBAL COOLING in their June meeting held in Spain. The word 'denier' is taking on a new meaning, such as: Denying that the sun is in a dormant mode, effecting the climate, freezing the planet as when the your river Thames froze in winters of 200 years ago and people (those who were not effectted by the resulting famines) skated on the icy river. You should start reading science, solar science, climate forcings such as the PDO, el Ninio, la Ninia, Antarctic sea-ice records, growing glaciers, Little Ice Age, the great ice age, Younger Dryass, Holocene period, Medieval Warm Period, Roman Warm period, Milankovitch cycle etc etc.......................but as usual you come up with ad-hominem attacks but NO SCIENCE IN YOUR COMMENTS.
Can you give me the scientific proof of Anthropogenic Global Warming? PLEASE.

Peter Korsten

Dec 1st 2010, 08:31

Sigh... here we go again, the global warming denialists come out. It's because of winds coming from the north pole, like last year.

If there were no global warming, could you perhaps explain this article?

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101130/local/november-drier-and-warmer-than-normal

Or do you think that 21 degrees at eight in the morning is a normal temperature for December?

Alex Ellul

Dec 1st 2010, 09:43

Peter, I wonder who the denialist is.
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2009/sci-techs/3615solar_min.html
>>April 9, 2009—A continued low in solar activity, as measured by the appearance of irregularities on the Sun's surface known as sunspots, may be responsible for the recent phase of cooling experienced in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. In the opinion of many specialists, the downturn in solar activity likely marks the beginning of a prolonged cooling period.
The expected cooling will produce many hardships for a human population already stressed by a prolonged downturn in global physical-economic productive capability.
For students of the Sun, the length of the solar cycle, which lasts an average of 11 years but may go longer or shorter, has proven the best historical indicator of short-term climate. At the ends of these solar cycles, sunspot activity first declines, and then picks up markedly, indicating the beginning of a new cycle. The precise relationship between the sunspots, which are thought to be determined by magnetic activity within the Sun, and the energy output of the Sun, is not known. continued........

Alex Ellul

Dec 1st 2010, 09:48

@Peter....continued....>However, long-term studies of the historical record have shown that when the minima in sunspot activity extend beyond the average 11 years, freezing temperatures are experienced.

The current solar-cycle, numbered 23, began in 1996, and was expected to reach minimum and transition to solar cycle 24 in January 2007.

It did not. Instead, a prolonged period of excessively low solar activity has continued to this moment. In 2008, there were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73%). "To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913," NASA reported in a press release. Since the beginning of the current year, sunspot counts have dropped even lower: As of April 9, there were no sunspots on 89 of the year's 99 days (90%).During the last Little Ice Age, which lasted from the 14th to the 19th centuries, a period of prolonged cold known as the Dalton Minimum (1796-1824), began with a solar cycle that lasted for 13.6 years. That solar cycle, numbered 4, was then followed by two very inactive solar cycles. During this time period, there were reports of wide-scale crop failures and food shortages.

Alex Ellul

Dec 1st 2010, 09:55

@Peter....continued....>So, Peter, we can deny warming or freezing temperatures, but we cannot deny the truth and the truth is there for all to see. The sun, that thing that rises in the east and provides practically all the energy our planet needs to sustain life, then sets in the west, every day, is what drives our climate.

What P. Ross provided shows that the northern hemisphere is currently gripped by a cold snap, all over, and that is climate. What you provided, the link showing a warm November in Malta is weather.

And BTW, don’t throw that fur coat away, you may need it for the next ice age.

Peter Korsten

Dec 1st 2010, 14:40

Alex, I'll ignore the weasel-word "many specialists" (what specialists?), but your chosen publication by LaRouche (a man who has done fifteen years hard time), the 'executive intelligence review' has claimed that Queen Elizabeth II is the head of an international drug smuggling cartel, or that the Oklahoma bombing was the first strike by the UK to try take over the USA.

Perhaps you could come up with a somewhat more reliable publication? One that is a bit more based on hard science?

Alex Ellul

Dec 1st 2010, 15:36

Korsten: Denying the facts by killing the messenger is the weapon of the last denialist resort. If you want more proof that man is not causing climate change: Try this one (There are a myriad of scientific reports proving that anthropogenic climate change is a myth) for size: Ph.D. scientists Willie Soon and sally Baliunas have not served time. They just prove that people need to be educated about the climate and not believe what the main stream media says.
http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=139

As for someone serving time, the climate change crew at the UK's CRU unit (of Climategate fame) need to serve time following the revelations of their cooked climate statistics, cooked up to show that the planet is warming, which is not. But they were declared innocent by three cooked-up committees formed from the same circle of friends. But the truth is out, only one needs to see it writ on the wall.

Peter Korsten

Dec 2nd 2010, 20:03

Facts, dear Alex, facts: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11903397 2010 is, so far, the warmest year GLOBALLY (we're talking about GLOBAL warming, not just about some winds coming from Siberia). "In terms of looking at recent years, 1998 was the most anomalous - the remaining top 10 warmest years in the series have all occurred since 2000." Weren't you claiming that the temperature is going down? And as for "shooting the messenger", please take a serious scientific publication, and just one that writes what you want to believe.

Alex Ellul

Dec 2nd 2010, 22:35

Korsten: Bad news for you. The Japanese have just killed the global warming scam:
Cancún climate change summit: Japan refuses to extend Kyoto protocol.
Talks threatened with breakdown after forthright Japanese refusal to extend Kyoto emissions commitments
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/01/cancun-climate-change-summit-japan-kyoto
It's dead Peter. Global Warming is dead. And the news comes from the vatican of climate change The-Guardian.
The news you just posted is not news at all. It was being cooked up, as all other temperature records cooked up the Climategate crew of CRU of East-Anglia-University, those who were caught with their pants down with their candle beneath the thermometer to make it artificially seem warmer. Recently they had declared that they had discovered a factor thatwas missing in their records, which had'reduced' the (cooked) temperatures by some 0.2C, so they just added 0.2C to all previous and this years records to make it look like its the end of the world and so would not lose their funding. IT'S ALL ABOUT MONEY, Peter, nothing else. The CRU crew are just protecting thier wages and science grants. It's called the climate-change gravy train. Can't you see it? Swine flu, millenium bug, bird flu.......... they all die, the scams that is.

Alex Ellul

Dec 2nd 2010, 22:58

And of course, BBC, the hot-bed of the global warmists, would not even dar show you this photo: Its a satellite photo of the UK completley covered in snow: the second year running, only this time it came much earlier and the freeze is all over the upper hemisphere. And you believe that this is global warming? Its a pack of lies and all people in positions of responsiblity know it thought hey do't say it. But they are acting accordingly: Japan has killed KYOTO today at CANCUN. because they know its a pack of lies.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/08/all-of-england-covered-by-snow/