Mark; have we gone backward...in a word yes!
As one who used to reguarly operate one of the twin jet Sno-blo Blacktop clearance machines back in the 70's at Waddington most definitely we have gone back BUT its largely thanks to the Environmentalists. They create far more problems than they cure. They moan continuously about the emissions from Jet Engines at high altitudes and it is they who have successfully managed to ban the use of such machines at ground level.
Also there is the question of the de-icing chemicals used these days; the various water authorities dislike the run-off from the runways getting into the normal surface drainage and the underlying water table. There is also the point that the chemicals used are highly corrosive to aluminium and cause premature aging of airframe structures.
Whilst it is damaging to big corporation profits it is ultimately more cost-effective to just ground all aircraft movements and let nature take it's course with assistance from ploughs, scrapers and rotary brushes.
As for runway heating all very nice but unless you have a large store of geothermal energy to rely on the costs involved are astronomical. Think of the millions of gallons of hot water that would be needed and the consequent electricity bills
Numerous scientific studies have shown that the system has to be operational at least 5 days before any snowfall to overcome the thermal inertia of 3 feet of concrete. The installation of such a system would entail closing and ripping up runways and no airport authority is going to sanction that kind of expenditure. Given that in fact the runways are the least problem and the easiest to clear mechanically, there is still the question of the support taxiways, service roads, aircraft dispersals, parking stands, etc, etc.
Taking Gatwick as an example there is also the question of the transport infrastructure. The railways in the mid-Sussex area are just as badly affected and the trains stop running at the drop of a hat. The M23 / M25 are highly liable to closure in snow, so people cannot get into or away from the airport even if the airport itself had every snow clearance device known to man.
Karensun...East Midlands Airport does NOT have runway heating; they were just lucky that they weren't affected by the very heavy snowfalls experienced in other parts of the UK. They are however very environmentally aware...see this link
Prior to coming out here I worked at Bournemouth Airport for 15 years and in all that time I think we closed just twice and we were open again for business within 24 hours handling diverted traffic from all over the UK and Europe. Bournemouth did close for a while this winter due to the snow but again was reopened for business (such as it was given that the rest of Europe had ground to a standstill!) within a very short period of time under 12 hours as I recall.
No airports in the UK have runway heating and only a couple in the States are so equipped. The ones that are so equipped in the States are operational USAF bases that suffer long periods of snow every winter.
There is no environmentally friendly, cost effective solution. All costs would have to be passed onto the customers ultimately and given that the majority of homeowners / holiday-homeowners out here use airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet because they provide a cheap form of transport, the impact of such costs would probably lead to those operators moving away from 'modified' airports to avoid paying the higher charges; passing on the costs to the customer would make them no longer cost effective. However in moving away from say Stansted and Luton they would lose customers anyway so its a Catch-22.
Far easier and ultimately far more cost effective just to shut down operations and wait for the weather to change.
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