Heathrow Airport - General Thread

[News Guru]

[textarea]Heathrow still world’s busiest international airport; only forth biggest airport

Airports Council International's (ACI) World Annual Traffic Report for 2010 shows that Heathrow Airport was the world's busiest in 2010 in terms of international passenger numbers, with 60.9m international passengers, up 0.4% on last year. It was ahead of Paris Charles de Gaulle, Hong Kong International, Dubai International and Frankfurt airports.

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport was the busiest in total passengers with 89.3m passengers (up 1.5%), ahead of fast-growing Beijing Capital International Airport (73.9m, up 13.1%). Heathrow dropped from second last year to forth (65.9m, down 0.2%), behind Atlanta, Beijing (73.9m, up 13.1%) and Chicago (66.8m, up 4.1%).

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[Sally Cap]

I have seen reports that Heathrow has been named as the official airport for the 2012 Olympics. I wonder how prepared they really are for the inevitable influx of passengers and luggage

 

[Aviador]

I have seen reports that Heathrow has been named as the official airport for the 2012 Olympics. I wonder how prepared they really are for the inevitable influx of passengers and luggage

Welcome to Forums4airports Sally Cap and congratulations on making your first post.

That is the case. Heathrow airport has been named as the official airport for the Olympic Games. Although the airport has had many well publicised problems over the last few years the airport is still better placed than say Gatwick which is limited to it's one runway operation. The government Department for Transport has released a document "Temporary coordination official airports for the 2012 London Olympic Games." to assist foreign airlines looking to operate additional flight to the UK over the period of the Olympic Games. Many will of course choose not to operate into London Heathrow itself as there is no spare capacity, but many airlines that already operate into Heathrow may well decide to upgrade the size of aircraft they operate during the games.

Here's a Department for Transport pdf for non scheduled aircraft: http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/p ... ptions.pdf

Here's the main DfT statement relating to aviation during the Olympic Games:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/statements/hammond-2011070

 

[News Guru]

[textarea]Heathrow triples snow vehicle fleet

Heathrow airport has tripled the number of snow clearing vehicles to be used to tackle severe winter weather. It also now has three times as many staff ready to clear snow compared with last year.

Thousands of passengers were left stranded at the airport as 4,000 flights were cancelled over five days for heavy snow in the peak period before last Christmas. This lead to widespread criticism of BAA and it responded by launching a review. As a result of that it has invested £32.4m so far to tackle severe weather and now has 185 snow clearance vehicles and has 468 staff per shift, compared to 117 last year.

Heathrow has also introduced a new ‘reservist’ role whereby up to 950 staff will be deployed to the terminals to help passengers during any disruption. BAA also has plans a new airport control centre and improvements to passenger information.

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[abrahamthomas201]

It is a good idea, isn’t it? You have the Third Busiest Airport in the World replete with all the facilities one would need when some time has to be killed before the flight takes off! If they are re-branding it, so be it. It is only good something such as this is done!

 

[News Guru]

[textarea]Heathrow Airport gets new check-in kiosks

ARINC Incorporated announced today that it has completed a major installation of 189 new self-service passenger kiosks at Terminals 1, 3, and 4 of Heathrow Airport. The installation is the largest deployment of common-use self-service kiosks at Heathrow and will serve around 20 international airlines at the three terminals. The project required ARINC to upgrade and support an older generation of kiosks while gradually replacing them with new A2 Series kiosks from IBM.

Andy Hubbard, ARINC EMEA Managing Director, said: ‘Automated passenger processing solutions are more critical than ever for airports today. A cost-effective and reliable common-use self-service system is a vital part of their operation. We are delighted to assist Heathrow Airport in delivering on their vision of streamlined passenger handling.’

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[Sherburnflyer92]

[textarea]Heathrow triples snow vehicle fleet

Heathrow airport has tripled the number of snow clearing vehicles to be used to tackle severe winter weather. It also now has three times as many staff ready to clear snow compared with last year.

Thousands of passengers were left stranded at the airport as 4,000 flights were cancelled over five days for heavy snow in the peak period before last Christmas. This lead to widespread criticism of BAA and it responded by launching a review. As a result of that it has invested £32.4m so far to tackle severe weather and now has 185 snow clearance vehicles and has 468 staff per shift, compared to 117 last year.

Heathrow has also introduced a new ‘reservist’ role whereby up to 950 staff will be deployed to the terminals to help passengers during any disruption. BAA also has plans a new airport control centre and improvements to passenger information.

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Still won't be able to cope. And will make us look like a 3rd world when CDG & FRA have the same amount of snow, but still remain open. Can't wait for it to snow.

 

[User0001]

Also, they are unable to do math:

Heathrow triples snow vehicle fleet

185 snow clearance vehicles.............compared to 117 last year

I get: 117 x 3 = 351, not 185?

 

[Jordan-34092]

[textarea]Loss of Glasgow – Heathrow flights hit businesses


Glasgow firms have reported a loss of business following the decision eight months ago by BMI to axe flights between the city and London, the Evening Times reports. The report comes amid fears among business leaders that more domestic flights to Heathrow will be axed in favour of more profitable long-distance routes in and out of the London airport.

A poll by the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) found that investors attracted to Glasgow recognised the importance of direct flights to Heathrow, while 66% of firms said their business had suffered as a result of bmi axing the direct flights link.

The SCDI policy chief Gareth Williams has asked ministers to drop their opposition for a third runway at Heathrow and called for guaranteed landing slots to serve ‘regional economic centres’. He said: ‘The Government was fundamentally mistaken in its decisions on new capacity, above all at Heathrow. This must be reconsidered.’

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[News Guru]

[textarea]Heathrow flights to be cut by 20% during Olympics

Restrictions on the number of flights it can handle will be imposed on Heathrow to ensure it can cope with the 500,000 international visitors expected during the London 2012 Olympics, the Times reports. Ministers concerned with the prospect of long delays and passenger complaints, commissioned a task force of experts to draw up plans and they have suggested a series of temporary rules that will be imposed on airports across the South East between July 21 and August 15.

Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport, will have the number of flights restricted in the first part of the plan. The airport will be allowed a maximum of 36 take-offs and landings an hour, compared with around 43 or 44 during peak hours in summer 2011. Normal scheduled services will continue to operate but unscheduled flights - private jets and charter flights, normally able to land at Heathrow - will be told to go to Stansted or other airports outside London. Even Barack Obama will not be able to land Air Force One at Heathrow during the ban (although he seems to prefer Stansted anyway).

A BAA spokesman said: ‘We will be the first and last impression people have of the Olympics and the UK, and we don’t want them sitting in a stack for an hour before landing.’ The company told airlines in a letter: ‘The purpose of the revised scheduling limit is to protect Heathrow from the risk of disruption as a result of the Games, either from the Games traffic or from other external factors.'

The restrictions are considered necessary because Heathrow normally operates at or near full capacity, and is therefore unable to cope with even minor disruptions without this affecting passengers. It is hoped that by limiting Heathrow's take-offs and landings there will be enough slack to ensure all passengers have a quick transit through the airport.

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[TheLocalYokel]

The DfT issued a notice nearly 12 months ago dealing with this and listed all the other airports within the south of England and south Midlands that would be available for aircraft unable to visit LHR during the Olympics period.

The press seems to have at last realised the implications which in fact are minimal for scheduled traffic into LHR.

I didn't know Obama was coming. Is he an Olympics fan? How did he manage to get tickets?

 

[Seasider]

Obama got his aides to apply for him!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Obama got his aides to apply for him!

I wonder if they've told him yet that they could only get tickets for the welly tossing and cheese rolling events.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Border Agency Staff Shortage

Sky News has just reported 'breaking news' that long delays are expected for inbound passengers at LHR this weekend because of staff shortages with Immigration personnel.

Sky suggests delays up to three hours will occur leading to late-running aircraft and possibly diversions to other airports.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Border Agency staff shortage

Further to my previous post, there was some disruption apparently but not as bad as forecast.

My son and his family returned from Dubai with Emirates yesterday and were due to arrive at LHR at 1330.

I watched them on Flightradar24 in the Lambourne stack for about 15 minutes before they were sequenced into the landing stream. They landed at 1348.

Once in Terminal 3 immigration formalities were accomplished in about three minutes.

 

[Aviador]

The Independent has reported the ownership of Heathrow airport could be divided up as a result of small print in the Civil Aviation Bill, which is going through Parliament.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/busin ... 76273.html

 

[TheLocalYokel]

That idea could cause more problems than it solves.

 

[cool3]

Hi Everyone,

I am working on a research based on Heathrow Airport. Would you please make any comments on it


Do you think Heathrow contributes to the generation of employment? if so how will it be affected by any developments (i.e.: expansion)? Would it create more employment?

Thanks
Evelyn

 

[Aviador]

Would jobs be created by specific expansion? Needless to say a new runway would take a couple of years to build and so would provide numerous well paid construction jobs in the area. Once the work was complete, the additional air traffic generated would provide additional employment. There is a theory in the aviation world that for every 1 million passengers that use an airport, around 1000 jobs are created. This theory takes into account every aspect of the industry so job creation can vary from an air traffic controller through to a local taxi driver that's dropping somebody off.

 

[eve.j]

I think yes, Heathrow does contribute to employment especially for a lot for construction and engineering jobs. There are plans for Heathrow to build a new temporary terminal for the Olympic games as they are expecting a 45% increase from the usual arriving passengers a day before the opening ceremony, 26th July, and this provides jobs for everyone. Also, the construction work for Terminal 2 aims to create jobs.