Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) is a vital element of the new air traffic management paradigm (you can read more about CDM in Roger-Wilco’s CDM category). Some airports in Europe are leading CDM implementation, among them Brussels. One would expect that operations at a CDM airport do not have to contend any more with such basic problems as waiting at a gate with no operator for the airbridge… Arrive late in the evening at Brussels and CDM airport or not, you will be treated to this kind of legacy problem.
Last Friday though they have given us a taste of the good old times, before CDM…
SN 2908 from Vienna was not only on time for its 23.10 arrival but it was actually some 15 minutes early. Landing on 25L the plane taxied to a remote position beyond the satellite terminal (see sketch below) where Brussels Airlines parks their aircraft for their week-end rest. Passengers were happy. 15 minutes may not be such a big gain in time but getting home 15 minutes earlier on a Friday night is a nice thing for everyone.
The plane came to a halt, engines fell silent and the doors… remained closed. Five minutes later the captain announced that we were a bit early and the stairs and bus were not yet available. It was then that some passengers started to ask the age old question, the one that started CDM as a concept more than two decades ago: do they not know it when a plane arrives early?????
I wanted to shout that YES they should know it. Especially at a CDM airport like Brussels. At around 23.00 Brussels airport is a quiet place so it could not be so that everyone was busy attending to other aircraft… Where were they???? Another 5 minutes or so passed before the doors were finally opened and we started boarding the single bus that came and which was evidently too small to take a full 737’s passenger count. Even standing like herrings in a can we could not squeeze out enough place to get everyone on board. So, a handful of people were left in the cold and wet tarmac wondering what to do next. Mind you, there was not a single soul advising them or keeping them from setting off on foot… As our bus started to move, we saw another one coming up for the rest but it was more like an afterthought than a planned action.
While having to take the bus from a remote stand usually means slower progress for the passengers at most airports, in Brussels this can be a blessing if you arrive from the Schengen area. The walking distance from Terminal A to the exit is nothing short of ridiculous and the bus usually drops you off directly under the main terminal which saves you from having to buy new shoes after the long trek from Terminal A.
Usually I said… that Friday night the bus took us ALL THE WAY back to Terminal A and we had to walk as if the plane had docked at one of the stands there (see sketch below). This flight on Friday nights is usually filled by people who know the score and now they saw immediately what was happening. “What a bunch of losers” and “Great efficiency” were just a few of the remarks I heard as we scampered off the bus for the walk back to where we had come from. I was tempted to tell them the story of the “asshole” encountered on departure a few day earlier… plenty of time for storytelling during the long walk West.
This was a bloody poor show and for a CDM airport, a shame for which there is no excuse.
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