We woke to a sad day on 4 February 2012. We had every reason to be happy… winter had arrived and we were looking forward to some serious snowfall. Of course for those on day-shift this was also cause for a bit of apprehension, what with the memories of a day two years ago when the airport had to be closed from 8 am till the evening due to snow. But on this Saturday snow problems were far from our minds, the main theme of conversation was the tragedy of the day before, something that elicited total shock within the aeronautical community of Hungary. What will Ferihegy Airport look like without MALEV aircraft? I drove to the airport with a knot in my stomach. I was driving as if I were going to an unknown, alien place.
The parking lot was the first sign that something was terribly wrong. On other days it was almost impossible to find a lot at Gate A since MALEV’s crews were also leaving their cars there. Now? Only a few cars were waiting as if being the forebode of nothingness. Whatever… we will be busy if for nothing else, the snow will take care of that, so we hurried out to the tower in our usual minibus. Once there, we listened in awe to the night shift who related to us the story of the “black army”, the crews who took poor MALEV Boeings on their last trip back to Shannon. I was fighting back tears… It was little consolation that our management assured us that we were not in danger. There is nothing that will compensate for those damn blue-nose planes! Once again I started to feel that anger, the anger at not being able to do anything that has flooded me so many times also in past years. As soon as it was light, I looked out towards Terminal 2 and saw only one or two jet birds and a few of the turboprop Indians which were later joined by the sole Bombardier sporting the old MALEV paint scheme. She was the one who brought home the “black army” pilots. I was glad that I was not among them… or may be I wished that I could be there and cry together with them? I wasn’t sure…
The tears are still very near the surface and I guess this will be like this for some time to come. Looking at the day’s schedule it struck me how short it was. It took some time to sink in that it was indeed that short and no pages were forgotten by the sender. This is to-days traffic. Without MALEV… What can we do? Get used to it I guess. Even the news that other airlines had taken immediate steps to take care of MALEV’s stranded passengers and that we would be busy once again was not enough to cheer me up. It will take a long time for an old warrior like me to digest this… if I will ever manage to digest it.
While I was nursing my wounds at the SV position in the back, colleagues up front had less and less time to feel sad as the snow started to fall in earnest. The conga line of snow fighters, under the command of my friend Pisti Gulyas, started the fight with the elements. While snow took command of the airport, the snow people commandeered the airwaves. As usual, they started the clearing operation on the longer runway 31R. Luckily, the snow was dry because of the very cold temperature and then managed to sweep the runway almost clean, producing a good medium breaking action. They then turned their attention to runway 31L, cleared and went back to the first one. This alternating rush went on for a time until the intensity of the snowfall increased to a crescendo. By afternoon it was time to decide: we would give up 31L and concentrate on 31R only. With so little traffic one runway will be more than enough… It was indeed enough and we managed to go through the day with only minimum restrictions. Only two flights went to their alternates, they would have arrived right at the beginning of the snow clearing operation and they did not want to hold for half an hour.
It was the ground controllers who were fencing with the departures, trying to figure out when exactly they should start the de-icing operation.
The time passed swiftly until the evening shift change. Using one runway in the old, traditional manner, even I had a go at it during the last two hours. When we work, there are no sad thoughts, family, only arriving and departing aircraft and the efforts to ensure that none of them have to wait more than absolutely necessary. By the time the nigh-shift arrived, the traffic was more or less gone. We took the minibus back to the parking lot, cleared the snow from our cars and drove home.
I think we must be thankful to the snow. It left no time for the bitter feelings and this was a good thing. In weather like this it is better in any case if traffic is low, Winter weather is not the best of time for flying anyway.
We will see what the future brings. With or without MALEV. Most probably without… But the airport and the tower must continue to work as long as there will be aircraft who still want to come to our little home.