[textarea]Heathrow T5 welcomes 50 millionth passenger

British Airways has welcomed its 50 millionth customer through the doors of Heathrow Terminal 5. Now in its third summer of operations, and after major problems when it opened, T5 has become an award winning facility – and is looking forward to the launch of further improvements.

The terminal has helped to transform BA's operations at Heathrow and continues to give customers the best travel experience they have had at the world’s busiest and most congested international airport. Its efficiency and levels of customer service have helped to raise punctuality to record levels. BA has improved its punctuality at Heathrow from an average of around 50 percent of on time departures each month when it was split located in Terminal 1 and 4, to an average of around 80 percent since moving to Terminal 5. Many days the airline can achieve 90 percent of on time departures at Terminal 5.

In addition, thanks to Terminal 5, British Airways now has the best baggage performance of any major European hub based airline. Arriving bags are also often waiting on the carousels to be collected by customers as they make their way through passport control. And levels of punctuality and baggage operations are expected to improve further when a new £300m third part of the terminal campus, known as T5 C, opens for customers in early summer 2011.

Source[/textarea]
 
[textarea]Heathrow backs world cup bid

Heathrow Airport has signed up to become an official sponsor of the UK's bid to hold the 2018 World Cup. The airport will provide special facilities for those arriving in the UK in the event that the country receives the tournament and during the initial bidding process.

England 2018 chief executive Andy Anson said that the number of passengers using Heathrow each day means that the bid will receive much public attention. He said: ‘We've already received support from football fans in over 200 countries around the world and now Heathrow's backing will enhance the visibility of England's bid to millions of travellers passing through one of the world's major international gateways.'

Source[/textarea]
 
[textarea]Heathrow runway repairs see switch to mixed mode

Residents living under the Heathrow Airport flight path in Berkshire face increased aircraft noise starting yesterday and for the next six weeks. The current system of ‘runway alternation’ is being suspended whilst ‘essential repairs’ to the northern runway taxiways, beginning today. Instead the airport will operate on a 'mixed mode' basis.

Most Heathrow departures take off in a westerly direction towards Berkshire, meaning those living under the flight path in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead will face increased noise, whilst those living in London are likely to experience less noise for the duration of the works.

When ‘runway alternation’ is in place, borough residents living under the flight path enjoy a break from aircraft noise after 15:00 daily - when planes use a different runway, taking off to the east. But repair works are required on the alternative runway's taxiing area. Checks revealed some concrete blocks need to be replaced to prevent debris getting into aircraft engines.

Source[/textarea]
 
[textarea]Airlines Speak Their Mind Over the 50 percent Rise in Heathrow Airport Fees

British Airways and BMI have recently spoke their mind about the increasing costs of domestic flights at Heathrow Airport. The increasing fees at Heathrow airport have been attacked by two of the biggest airlines in the UK.

Departure fees of all Heathrow domestic services will rise by more than 50 percent in April, meaning that they will jump from £13.43 to £20.25 per passenger. This increase comes on top of a rise in Air Passenger Duty as well. Airlines are now scared, with all of these increases in fees, passengers are going to be priced out of flying.

Any flights that are departing from Heathrow to other British airports are now subject to the same fees as European services. BMI described the move as unjustifiable. The airline said that it would consider taking legal action against the airport.

The BMI chief executive, Wolfgang Prock Schauer, said that the new charges will lead to higher prices of domestic flights. It will cause massive inconvenience to all travelers using this airport. This will also be a major blow to the economies of Scotland and Northern Ireland, which depend very heavily on air connectivity to and from Heathrow.

A spokesman for British Airways, which operates some 40 percent of flights to and from Heathrow, said that the increase in charges would result in a decline in passenger numbers from regional airports. After all, people are going to be looking for the cheapest flights and airlines using Heathrow cannot offer such prices with increased fees.

This is just yet more bad news for the flying community. Hopefully this new problem gets worked out quickly or everyone is going to be stuck paying higher plane tickets.

Source[/textarea]
 
The BBC is reporting that the Heathrow airport southern runway is now open.
 
[textarea]BAA launch Heathrow snow inquiry

An inquiry has been launched by BAA into ‘what went wrong’ at Heathrow Airport after flights were grounded for days following snowfall last Saturday. The panel of experts from other airports and airlines will consider BAA's ‘planning, execution and recovery’ during the crisis.

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews also announced that the company it would spend £10m on more winter equipment. He said: ‘The inquiry will forensically examine what went wrong at Heathrow, and look fundamentally at our ability to prepare and respond more effectively to periods of bad weather at an airport operating at its maximum capacity. The inquiry will have complete freedom to examine the sequence of events, and to deliver recommendations for BAA to implement.’

BAA's non-executive director Prof David Begg, who is also chairman of the British Chambers of Commerce Infrastructure Commission, will head the inquiry. The former heads of Canadian Airlines, Winnipeg Airport, Montreal Airport, Newark Liberty Airports and Zurich Airport will also be on the panel. The panel will talk to airlines and passenger representatives.

Source[/textarea]
 
[textarea]Heathrow ‘refused airline help to clear runway’

Heathrow Airport refused an offer by airlines to put their staff to work clearing snow and ice from aircraft stands and the runway that had paralysed operations for much of the past week, the Daily Telegraph reported, citing internal documents it had seen. BAA told the airlines it was refusing help on health and safety grounds, even though it did not have enough manpower itself to complete the job quickly, the newspaper said.

Heathrow cancelled two thirds of flights on Monday and Tuesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded. An airport spokesman said it had twice as many snow plows as Gatwick, which managed to keep its single runway operating for most of the period, the Telegraph said. Yet internal BAA documents show Heathrow only had 10 snow plows and seven de-icing vehicles, against 14 plows at Gatwick, the newspaper reports, and Heathrow has two runways.

The Government also offered troops to BAA to help clear snow, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said, although he added ‘The airport has told us they have plenty of manpower to do this work’ so will not be taking up the offer.

Source[/textarea]
 
BAA told the airlines it was refusing help on health and safety grounds, even though it did not have enough manpower itself to complete the job quickly, the newspaper said.

An airport spokesman said it had twice as many snow plows as Gatwick........

Ugh!!

Two of the banes of British life - health and safety and American spellings (and words and expressions).

And the source document is UK Airport News Information, presumably a British site.
 
Well spotted.

I'm forever adding American words to the banned list in the forum administration and relpacing them with the English words. (the correct version of course)

You've got me thinking now - is it sensor or censer
 
[offtopic]When used as a noun a censor is someone who is in some way authorised or otherwise in a position to remove or suppress anything considered objectionable, usually from a moral or political standpoint.

The noun to censor refers to the act of being a censor.

A sensor is a device that reacts to a signal of some sort, often electronic, in order to perform a function, for example a burglar alarm that is triggered when an electronic beam is disturbed.

I suppose that it could be said that censorship on the Internet is governed by both censors and sensors, in that someone or a group of people decides what they consider to be objectionable (the censors) and then set up a 'sensor' (probably not strictly one in the accepted sense) to act when banned words or expressions are recognised.

Whether censor or sensor or both, some of the results are laughable and I'm sure not what the originators intended.[/offtopic]
 
[textarea]Government knew Heathrow was not prepared for heavy snowfall

Theresa Villiers, the aviation minister, has admitted that the Government knew about Heathrow's 'inadequate preparations for winter', the Telegraph reports. She also confirmed that airports could face fines when passengers have their travel disrupted.
Ms Villiers said that Philip Hammond, the transport secretary, discussed Heathrow’s plans for severe weather with BAA, the airport’s owner, earlier this year. The newspaper suggests that BAA failed to invest in sufficient manpower or equipment to cope with heavy snowfall. The Government is now pushing for legislation which would give the CAA the power to fine airport owners when they fail passengers.

Ms Villiers said: ‘Obviously we had been in touch with the airports urging them to be properly prepared for the winter weather. Next time they need to do better. It [new legislation] would give the regulator power to fine the airport where it does let passengers down and doesn't prepare properly for severe weather conditions. We want to make sure that airports are doing their very best to prepare for severe weather conditions.’

Under the current airport regulatory regime, financial penalties can only be imposed by the CAA for specific categories, including security, seating availability, passenger queues and cleanliness. The new airport economic regulation bill will provide extra powers to impose fines for a wide range of service failures, including failure to prepare for adverse weather conditions. These fines can be up to 7% of airport charges.

A spokesman for BAA welcomed the prospect of new legislation to ‘improve the experience for passengers’.

Source[/textarea]
 
[textarea]Air passengers face higher tax to fly from London

Passengers flying from Heathrow and other airports in south-east England face extra taxes under Government proposals to deter people from using London's crowded terminals.

Many users of London airports feel they already face high prices and poor service when they fly a grievance only sharpened by recent disruptions at Heathrow following snow

The Coalition is studying plans to charge higher taxes on flights from the south-east and lower duty on journeys from airports in other regions like northern England.

Under plans to reduce congestion at south-east airports, hundreds of domestic and European flights will also be stripped out of Heathrow with Birmingham used as a London overspill airport.

Around 80 per cent of all UK flights take off from airports in the south-east, and Heathrow is the world’s busiest airport.

Theresa Villiers, the aviation minister, said that a reform of Air Passenger Duty next year could introduce different tax rates to help “relieve overcrowding” at London airports.

But the prospect of ministers trying to tax people off flights from Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted is likely to prove controversial with travellers.

Many users of London airports feel they already face high prices and poor service when they fly, a grievance only sharpened by recent disruptions at Heathrow following snow.

The Treasury is drawing up plans to overhaul air taxes, and is expected to launch a consultation at the Budget in March.

Some regional airport operators have claimed that uniform higher taxes will lead big airlines to pull out of their airports and further concentrate their operations on the south-east.

Ms Villiers raised the prospect of regional variations in tax at a meeting with industry leaders in London before Christmas.

She said: “It is not inconceivable that our tax reform might look at a higher tax to fly from congested South East airports.”

She added: “A key part of our approach is to create conditions for regional airports to flourish, and this also has the potential to help relieve overcrowding at south east airports.”

APD has risen more than four-fold since 2006, with the latest increases taking effect from November 2010. The tax now raises around £3.8 billion a year for the Treasury.

BAA, which owns Heathrow, said any new differential tax penalising the south-east would make it harder to compete with airports like Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris for flights to emerging economies like India and China.

A BAA spokesman said: “We already have the highest aviation tax in the world in the UK and if we are looking at increasing taxes on Heathrow -- the UK's only hub airport -- we will simply make the country less competitive.”

The Conservatives fought the election on a pledge to introduce a “per plane” tax to replace APD, arguing that the change would encourage operators to fly fuller planes, ultimately reducing fuel use and carbon emissions.

The Treasury said last night that no decision had been taken on flight taxes, adding that any changes will be subject to consultation following the 2011 Budget.

As well as the tax consultation, the Coalition is planning a wider overhaul of air policy. In the spring, the Department for Transport will issue a “scoping document” setting out ministers’ overall strategy for aviation

The document will supersede the 2003 Aviation White Paper, which recommended a third runway at Heathrow and a second at Stansted.

Both have been ditched by the Coalition, which has also ruled out expanding Gatwick. That leaves the Government with the problem of how it will tackle aviation congestion in the South East.

Sources said part of the solution will be to divert travellers to Birmingham International, which will effectively become a London “overspill” airport.

Ministers say the building of the high speed rail link will dramatically alter the airport map of Britain, putting Birmingham airport 32 minutes from Heathrow.[/textarea]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/trave ... ondon.html

The suggestion of higher air passenger duty for the south east airports is controversial. I hate the state trying to manipulate markets - the results are often not what was intended and invariably unhelpful.
 
Governments are forever meddling with airports trying to manipulate where passengers should fly to and from. They need to keep their nose out of it and let market forces decide.
 
[textarea]Comments invited on Heathrow snow enquiry

The Heathrow Winter Resilience Enquiry - a review of how the airport responded to the snow and ice in late December that closed the airport for five days - has been launched with a new website for passengers, staff and other people affected to submit their experiences of snow chaos.

The enquiry will examine Heathrow’s response, its planning, execution and recovery from the severe weather conditions that caused the airport to close in December 2010. Independent non-executive director Professor David Begg, who joined the BAA Board in December, is o lead an external enquiry. The panel members are drawn from airports and airlines around the world, have a far-reaching brief and will publish their report in March 2011.

For those caught up in the snow chaos at Heathrow, the website offers a chance to voice their experience. The website is at heathrowenquiry.com/say.html. Alternatively people can send a response in writing to:

Secretary to the Heathrow Winter Resilience Enquiry
Compass Centre – 2nd Floor, Meridian North
Nelson Road
Hounslow
Middlesex
TW6 2GW

All responses must be submitted by 15 February 2011.

Source[/textarea]
 
[textarea]Heathrow Airport drawing up new snow plans

Heathrow Airport is drawing up plans for a railway-style emergency timetable in the event of extreme weather conditions, after criticism of its handling of December's snow problems. The Guardian reports it is in talks with airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Department for Transport to create a system that will bind carriers to a reduced schedules at the airport if severe weather cripples its twin runways again.

As it prepares to give evidence on the snow chaos to MPs this week, BAA wants to eliminate the haggling over take-off and landing slots that led some flights to be listed on departure boards even though there was no space for them to take off. It cut the number of available slots by two-thirds but struggled to impose a matching schedule, with some airlines operating rogue flights, the newspaper reports.

A spokesman for Heathrow told the Guardian: ‘We are exploring how an emergency timetable could be applied at Heathrow. Such a timetable would enable us to provide more reliable information and reduce congestion.’

Source[/textarea]
 
[textarea]Heathrow rejected ‘unskilled labour’ military help during snow crisis

The operations director at Heathrow Airport rejected the Government's offer of military help to clear iced-up runways, because they did not want aid from 'unskilled labour', the Daily Mail reports that Transport Secretary Philip Hammond told MPs yesterday. He made the comments after Heathrow owner BAA's chief executive Colin Matthews last week claimed the offer of troops had come 'too late' to help passengers because by then the problem was already largely solved.

Mr Hammond said: 'I was the one who conveyed the offer [of military help] to the airport management. The response I got was not that the offer was made too late but that the airport did not think unskilled labour was appropriate or helpful at that stage.' Heathrow bosses told him they needed equipment to clear the runways, taxi-ways and aprons 'rather than simply real muscle.'

A spokesman for BAA said: 'We were very grateful for the Secretary of State's offer of army help but by the time it would have taken to deploy those troops, which we estimated to be Tuesday afternoon, we were confident that the second runway would be clear. That turned out to be the case.'

Source[/textarea]
 
[textarea]Heathrow celebrate 25 years of Terminal 4

Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 4 has celebrated its silver jubilee. It was opened by Diana Princess of Wales and Prince Charles of Wales in 1 April 1986. Built at a cost of £200 million and located at the south east of the airport, more than £170 million is currently being invested in an extensive modernisation programme of the terminal, so that passengers enjoy a 21st century airport experience.

The airport revealled that more people use Terminal 4 than live in London (8.3 million passengers on 54,217 flights last year) and since it opened 284.6 million passengers have passed through its gates. Terminal 4 is also significant because it serves the world’s most unusual and far-flung cities. It is home to the Skyteam airline alliance and boasts 38 airlines flying to 53 destinations including Taipei, Baku and Mumbai, with thousands of passengers using Terminal 4 every day to fly to China, India and Africa.

As part of Heathrow’s £1 billion a year investment programme, Terminal 4 has been significantly improved in recent years and was recently ranked Europe’s ‘most improved terminal’ in a survey of leading airports by Airports Council International (ACI). A 6,000 square metre extension has transformed check-in while work continues in Baggage Reclaim and Arrivals.

Chris Butler, Terminal 4’s operations director, said: ‘Terminal 4 is a window to the world. The direct links it boasts to emerging markets will be even more vital to British businesses as we seek to grow our way out of recession. For leisure travellers, it is also one of the most diverse terminals in the world and we revel in the unique mix of faces and languages that pass through it every day.

Source[/textarea]
 
[textarea]More than twice as many Heathrow staff fly to work than cycle

If you work at Heathrow there is more chance that you fly in to work rather than cycle, the Telegraph reports. The airport's ‘Changing Direction’ travel plan reveals that 1713 of the airport's 72,000 employees fly to work, more than double the number who cycle and four times the number who get the Heathrow Express train.

The newspaper reports that the airport has said it is ‘committed to climate change’ [we assume they mean committed to reducing its effect on climate change] but that 2.38 percent of Heathrow's workforce flew to work in 2004, and its 'tough target' for 2012 remains at 2.38 percent.

Source[/textarea]

I think this may well be true. Up until the loss of the Leeds to Heathrow service a few years back, I used to see a fair amount of cabin crew travelling to work dressed in British Airways or Virgin Atlantic uniforms.

Heathrow has to be an exception because it's not your average airport. Heathrow is a large intercontinental airport serving a nation not just a city. It's silly to expect the entire workforce of Heathrow airport to live within a few miles of the airport and cycle or catch the train to work.
 
[textarea]Heathrow hotel announce management team

The senior management team at the new Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 5, which is due to launch on 31 August, has been announced. Greg Place, formerly director of strategic development for Whitbread’s London hotel properties, joins the five-star hotel as general manager. Having held senior positions with Hilton, Marriott and IHG in the past, he will lead the executive management team.

Alexandra Mosquito, formerly of Hilton, IHG and Accor, is the new hotel manager. She will be joined by director of human resources Caroline Lowe; director of business development Tiffany Crawford; director of sales and marketing Jo Peck; and director of finance Steven Close.

Source[/textarea]
 

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All checked in for my flight to Sydney from Manchester via Heathrow. Been waiting for this trip for nearly a year and now tomorrow I'll finally head to Australia and New Zealand!
If anyone would like to share their local airport news right here in our news area let me know so I can give you the correct permissions to do so. It only takes a couple of minutes to upload a news story with an accompanying image. The news items can then be shared on the site homepage by you. #TakePart #Forums4airports Bring the news to one place!
survived a redundancy scenario where I work for the 3rd time. Now it looks likely I will get to cover work for 2 other teams.. Pretty please for a payrise? That would be a no and so stay on the min wage.
Live in Market Bosworth and take each day as it comes......
Well it looks like I'm off to Australia and New Zealand next year! Booked with BA from Manchester via Heathrow with a stop in Singapore and returning with Air New Zealand and BA via LAX to Heathrow. Will circumnavigate the globe and be my first trans-Pacific flight. First long haul flight with BA as well and of course Air NZ.
15 years at the same company was reached the weekend before last. Not sure how they will mark the occasion apart from the compulsory payirse to minimum wage (1st rise for 2 years; i was 15% above it back then!)

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