WORKING BETWEEN FLIGHTS
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Clearing doesn’t stop once the aeroplanes are back in the air; instead the snow clearance team’s job becomes significantly more difficult.
Freezing temperatures and further snowfall mean all areas of the airfield have to be kept free of ice and snow, leaving staff the unenviable task of manoeuvring between moving aircraft. Cooke explains: “Technically, the drivers don’t have to have a class C licence, although we insist they do, but we get to a point where we are clearing among the aircraft, which means drivers must have a manoeuvring permit to be driving on the runways. That means we have about 50 drivers available for snow clearing, 20 of whom have manoeuvring permits.
“We rely on a lot of goodwill to stay open, even the chief executive has had snow training and has helped clear the snow in previous years.”