Liverpool Airport fog cancellations come despite new £2m lighting system
06.11.07
Thousands of passengers were delayed at Liverpool Airport over the weekend after fog led to cancellations (as reported yesterday). However, the Liverpool Echo reports that the problems were more embarrassing than normal for the airport, because they came less than a week after it had launched a new £2m runway lighting system that was supposed to keep planes flying during foggy weather.
On Sunday a total of 27 flights were cancelled, with 13 others subject to long delays. Some passengers waited 10 hours for alternative flights. However, the disruption came days after the airport launched its new runway lighting system to reduce the number of cancelled flights at the airport.
The lighting for the runway and taxiway, which took six months to complete, was supposed to allow aircraft to taxi, take-off and land in extremely low levels of visibility - which previously would have resulted in cancelled flights.
During the launch last Monday, airport director Andy Gower said: 'As winter draws nearer and the weather can get poorer, this upgrade to the runway lighting system will help ensure that even fewer flights will be affected by any bad weather.'
Yesterday Liverpool Airport spokesman Robin Tudor told the newspaper the lighting system had 'paid dividends' and that things would have been much worse had it not been installed. He added: 'The fog was so thick that it didn't matter how good a system of lighting we had - it was irrelevant.'
'But as soon as it started to lift and there was an improvement in the visibility, the lighting worked. It really has paid dividends and got things moving much quicker than would have otherwise been possible.'
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