Is Winter the hardest season to get off the ground?

It’s 11th December 2013. As I write this, which, if we’re splitting hairs, is technically still the end of Autumn, I can foresee nothing but pain ahead for Christmas and New Year travellers trying their very best to get away from the UK over the coming weeks.

Here’s the thing. Just today, my regular mode of commuter travel, a ferry from the Isle of Wight, was severely delayed by a collection of liquid water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Yep, you guessed it – fog!

What is so strange is that ferry companies and airlines invest millions in GPS, sonar, radar and navigation systems to deal with extreme weather conditions, but the moment a low-lying cloud plonks itself in front of us, the transport infrastructure system simply stops functioning.

And this incident is so typical of the risk-managed culture we live in. If in doubt, leave the jeopardy where it is. Tied up or on the ground.

We talk about capacity. We try to innovate with border controls and terror-assessment. But the moment the weather gets ‘difficult’, the departure board is full of the evil ‘C’ word.

This is probably the 1st week of the Christmas/New Year exodus (would it be PC to use ‘holidays’ here?) from the UK to sunny or snowy climes. Yet so far, a telephone glitch in Swanwick has stopped 12 hours of flights departing from all of Southern England’s airports, and the ‘fog condition’ has delayed another 100 flights from 3 major hubs. On the radio last night, the fog was still prompting news agencies to panic untold numbers of anxious travellers.

And we haven’t had the really bad weather yet – the snow, the ice, the severe outbreaks of check-in desk influenza that regularly stop the system from functioning  - or not functioning the way all other North European countries seem able to at this time of year.

Are there other forces at work here? Is this the beginning of a weather channel/hotel conspiracy that seems to prevail in the US – talk up the severity of the weather and watch the profitability of the major hotel chains soar!

It’s a mean spirited thought, I know, and maybe it’s because I’m about to fly off to Munich to watch my good wife gaze wistfully at a real Christmas market.

Whatever the reasons, a bit of damp mist shouldn’t be a reason to make me feel apprehensive.

Seasons greetings!

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