Date: 201603
Local time of day: 1801-2400
Location: ZZZ.Airport, US
Flight conditions: IMC
Weather elements / visibility: Thunderstorm
Light: Night
Aircraft: A320
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Parked
ATC / advisory: Ground ZZZ
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Captain; Pilot Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Physiological - Other; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Workload
Anomaly: Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: Pre-flight
Result: Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Contributing factors: Equipment / Tooling; Human Factors; Weather; Procedure
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: ZZZ closed for Thunderstorms (TS) while we were on the arrival. We held for about 30 minutes during which time we were planning our contingencies. We were holding slightly east of ZZZ1 and were planning to divert there and advised dispatch. They replied that ZZZ1 was not usable due to some weight bearing NOTAM.  That is information that would have been very useful to know BEFORE we started planning to divert there. Had we not found out when we did it would have led to a fuel critical situation.Our next closest alternate was ZZZ2. We weren't fuel critical; but we didn't really have fuel to fly to a much further alternate; particularly since a line of weather was between us and all the more suitable northerly alternates. I mistakenly assumed that if flight ops publishes an airport as an alternate; that meant that they had assured that the airport was actually suitable for a diversion. This was not the case. By the time we landed we were getting very close to being timed out on duty time. It was very likely we were going to time out in ZZZ2 since the weather in ZZZ was moving toward ZZZ2. Well; it turned out that the airstairs in ZZZ2 were about 4 feet too short for an Airbus. In order for the First Officer to perform his walk around; he had to risk his personal safety and climb down to the VERY wobbly airstairs and then climb up again. Had we timed out in ZZZ2 I have no idea how we would have deplaned. I suppose we would have had to call the fire department to come with ladders.  Knowing I had no way to deplane and that we were going to time out put extreme pressure on us to depart before the weather passed. The situation was further complicated by our inability to reach ATC for a clearance. We finally had to call 800-wxbrief to get our clearance. Luckily the weather had dissipated quite a bit during the hour we were on the ground there enabling us to depart sooner than we expected.  As it turned out we landed with one minute to spare on our duty time. It is incredible to me that an operation of this magnitude has not properly vetted out its alternate airports. [Company] needs to establish policy and practices to ensure that alternates are suitable and have proper servicing equipment. Additionally it would be useful if we had a system to rapidly disseminate changing information concerning alternate airports before we depart.  Perhaps we should consider issuing airport info pages for alternates which outline what services are available. Perhaps there is some way we could also graphically rank alternate suitability so it would be more clear during real time operations. Duty regs are designed to improve safety; but in this case they served very much to undermine it. I was under extreme pressure to depart soon than I was ready to depart. As a result we made several errors in our predeparture setup; all of which we luckily self-trapped. I was eerily reminded of the Tenerife accident where the captain was pressured to take off in order to remain legal. I'm sorry to see that not much has changed in 40 years.




Synopsis: An A320 flight crew diverted after destination airport closed for thunderstorms and discovered after landing that even though the airport is listed as an alternate its services were not suitable for his aircraft. The air stairs were four feet too short for his aircraft type.