HEATHROW

[JetRob]

Selcal

The one on the right has to be a water mark, there is no fallout from the cloud that can make that.

However the on the left looks like a fallout because of the way to cloud moves when it falls out. But looking at it, it moves falling back down the ground so, it could be anything.

[aeroDellboy]

The picture shows in the foreground the Royal Mail London Air Mail Unit on the South side of the airport, the site on the old Langley works is the Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre.

[Seljuk22]

EK is (was) the main customer of the warehouse
gulfnews : Emirates warehouse at Heathrow on fire

[jdcg]

Czech Airlines allegedly pulling out of LHR (as well as MAN) from Nov 10th. Drastic need for capital I guess as they should be able to sell the slots for a tidy sum. Still, seems a bit of a shame for them - would they codeshare with BA, even though they're different alliances...?

[Seljuk22]

BA will start LHR-GOT double daily from 28th November.

[Seljuk22]

Air Berlin will join oneworld. Maybe we'll see them at LHR in the near future?
oneworld - Neuigkeiten

[daz211]

What a let down ...

I have only traveled through LHR T3 and T4 twice this year but let me start with the drive time from Essex to LHR last week it took me 3.5 hrs and the time before that took 3hrs, Now lets get onto the state of the Terminals, T3 layout of checkin area is confusing and in my mind it is a total mess of tenser barriers and dated desks however the departure shopping area seemed ok but the departure gates (I flew Air Canada) looked like they had not been updated for over 20yrs, when I flew back into T3 i was greeted to for want of a better work a building site wires, pipes, tape and boarded off areas all this before getting into UK border control, A massive mass of people no order three lines leading to one desk with five members of staff trying to fit very tired and grumpy travelers in to this very small area, once again a building site, Baggage reclaim I thought i had walked into third world countries Airport make shift baggage desks the oldest baggage trollies I have ever seen and unclaimed/lossed bags lined up in every area i could see, the Virgin desk looked a total mess some old red dirty seats outside a makeshift boarded office the baggage belts very old and dated ... now T4 was not much better the same building works very old and tired looking ....
So here is my gripe ! Why do Airlines still want there passengers to have to go through the hell of what is called the M25, I mean 3.5 hrs to travel less than 90 miles
then once you arrive at LHR (if you havent missed your flight) having to face the mish mash of checkin desks and taped off lanes, At least you can have an OK wait in the departure lounge but then only to walk to a very dated and dirty gate area.
I know that people will answer with Airlines want to use LHR because of the connections and Airlines that also use LHR but I wonder how many people do connect through LHR and how many dont, Take the USA for instance you can get direct flights from the US to many European Airport so why LHR?
Airlines should offer flights to STN or LTN as well as LHR, Lets say an Airline has 4-5 flights a day to the US why not have two to LHR and two to STN or LTN and one to MAN or NCL or BHX ? We got talking to a family and a group who were on our flight the group of 12 had traveled from 3 miles outside of LTN and the family had traveled like us from Colchester 20mins from STN so why did we all have to travel over 3hrs to travel through what looked and felt like a third world airport ... what must people traveling into LHR think of the MESS and bad layout and dated Airport, it is far from a good first impresion of London and the UK.

------- Sorry I had to get this of my chest .

[Skipness One Echo]

Only in the UK is it a disaster to be three hours drive from a world hub airport

Airlines should offer flights to STN or LTN as well as LHR, Lets say an Airline has 4-5 flights a day to the US why not have two to LHR and two to STN or LTN and one to MAN

Firstly I agree with the state of Terminal 3, T3 is horrible, but to their credit BAA have demolished T2 which was worse, built T5 which is actually really good once you know your way around, and revamped T4 departures to T5 look and feel, which is like an airport of its own on the South Side. T4 Arrivals revamp has been budgeted for too. Even T3's exterior forecourt has been spruced up but the piers are approaching the end of their lives and indeed pier 7 is to be demolished and replaced in the medium term with the replacement, mirroring the T5 / T2 layout. Demolishing the rest is the final part of the long drawn out revamp.

As to your question, I'm afraid you misunderstand the basic economics involved.
easyJet for example are indeed successful in point to point routes across several London airports but that business model does not translate to long haul legacy carriers. American came to Stansted to kill the opposition, not to bring long haul to Essex. These legacy carriers make money by offering frequent connections to premium passengers which in turn allows a good deal for the passenger down the back. London flights are cheaper than regional flights with say Continental or KLM as there is more competition at London. Economies of scale also play a part, if I book in advance I can generally get a way better fare out of London than if I book from lots of other European airfields.

Also the rise of the alliances means more co-operation and consolidation at their bases where they build a joined up route network for "seamless" connecting. Well we can hope (!) but it's better than it was.

You can't seriously expect everyone to have a world hub round the corner. You live in Essex and can drive to Heathrow. BAA didn't build the M25 you know. Isn't that a good thing that you have the chance to chose from so many destinations?

You can't even connect to legacy hubs at Stansted as the airport is predominantly a LOW cost Ryanair base with two failed US carriers in recent years. If someone operates legacy long haul from STN they will struggle to make sufficient money as the guys down the road in Heathrow have the front end sewn up allowing the back end to charge peanuts in some cases.
That won't happen at STN, with the back end charging more realistic prices and Joe Public going from LHR on price again.

Air Asia X is embarking on a relatively new idea, I wish them every success but they are starting with a clean sheet of paper. You are advocating that for example Continental operate

CO29 LHR-EWR
CO111 LGW-EWR
CO113 LTN-EWR
CO19 STN-EWR

Except that leave a single daily rotation out of the hub airport and the connecting traffic upon which the route makes money, AND drives down the Economy fares collapses. Hence I now pay more to fly to New York? These guys made a very deliberate choice to spend a LOT of money acquiring slots at Heathrow so they could move out of Gatwick.

[daz211]

I do understand most of the above but there are more than enough front end passengers who just fly across the pond in either direction and dont take connecting flights and most people in the UK fly to the US and connect to US cities.
If I was an American flying to Europe my very last choice of a connecting Flights would be via LHR its just to full and not very passenger friendly AMS,CDG and MAD are much nicer Airports.
Like you said STN had MaxJet and Eos who were doing ok until American Airlines came to bully them out, AA flight from STN were alway busy.
My point and your point regarding 3hrs drive to a International Hub - and BAA did not build the M25 is true but it should not take 3hrs to drive that distance and there are many people who drive to LHR who live all over the UK who drive past many Airports on the outskirts of London that could fill a flight to the US .

I guess I will just have to wait until next year when AirAsia may go Transatlantic .

[Seljuk22]

From 31st Oct Delta will increase flights to ATL (from daily to 11 weekly) and DTW (from daily to 10 weekly).

Air India will increase DEL from 10 weekly to double daily starting 31st Oct. DEL-LHR-YYZ and ATQ-LHR-YYZ will be cancelled.

BA will launch a 7th daily flight to JFK on 1st Dec.
Inaugural flight of the B777-300ER (configuration: F14 C56 W44 Y183) will be on 3rd Sep to BOM.
Other destinations are DEL, DXB and ORD.

Saudi Arabian will increase its flights to JED from current 7 to 9 weekly (9 inbound, 8 outbound) from 31st Oct.

Egyptair MS777/778 to CAI will be flown by B777-300ER from 1st Jan 2011.

[Seljuk22]

Delta applied for twice daily BOS-LHR and daily MIA-LHR starting next summer
Delta Air Lines Moves to Expand Competition at London's Heathrow Airport - Aug 26, 2010

Egyptair MS777/778 will be daily A333 (no increase to B77W).

[British Grenadier]

Yipppeeeee !!!! more Delta flights in T4 , more A/C waiting to get in to a already congested Terminal , and thats without Saudi going there in Nov

[Skipness One Echo]

Terminal 4 is way less congested than it used to be with BA. It has peak hours certainly with the evening rush from India but it's hardly at capacity like "one in one out" at Terrible 3.

Just wait until they get to the stage they were at with BA with heavies being bussed to and from Stands 451-456, 440-441 and even offloading at 430-432.

Happy days....er not.

Purely from a spotting point of view, some of the Delta flights this winter will be on the B767-300ERs with the mega winglets !

[Seljuk22]

bmi will increase Beirut from daily to double daily next summer. Up to 48% off with the bmi Seat Sale -Second daily service to be launched between London Heathrow and Beirut | Fly bmi

Qatar Airways currently use B777-200LR on one of their daily flights.
Qatar Airways Boeing 777 introduced to London route | Aviation | AMEinfo.com

[Shingles]

Cardinal's "third-world Heathrow" smear

Was I the only one to initially assume that the cardinal was slagging off Heathrow's infrastructural failings rather than the muticultural reality of the UK in 21st century? My first thought was that he had got it about right...

[MUFC_fan]

Was I the only one to initially assume that the cardinal was slagging off Heathrow's infrastructural failings rather than the muticultural reality of the UK in 21st century? My first thought was that he had got it about right...

It makes me giggle that a man who believes, or represents an organisation of people that believes that gay rights and condoms are sinful can have the cheek to call the world's 6th largest economy 'thrid world.'

However he meant to say it, it is a complete insult to the nation.

He obviously doesn't fly BA into T5!

[Skipness One Echo]

If you want to use the thread to have a dig at the Holy Father or the Roman Catholic Church then fair enough BUT please take it to Jet Blast. I ask this as a gay man myself. Remember :

1) It's going to offend a lot of good people
2) It's not relevant.

Please, this is not the place.

[Shingles]

Actually I posted on this not to bash the RCs but rather comment on ongoing Heathrow chaos. My misunderstanding of the broohaha was genuine and I felt a dork later on when I read the beeb's news. Fortunately I don't seem to be alone...

[Seljuk22]

BA will launch 5 weekly flights to Tokyo-Haneda from 19th February.

Daily flights LHR-GRU-EZE will split to LHR-GRU and LHR-EZE each daily starting next summer.
Haneda Holiday British Airways Press Office

Furthermore BA will axe daily flights to Belgrade from 30th Nov.

[Seljuk22]

bmi will launch daily flights to Tripolis with A319 starting 1st December.

QF will increase their A380 services to LHR next year:
from 16th January SYD-SIN-LHR from 5 weekly to daily flights
from 15th March MEL-SIN-LHR from 2 weekly to daily flights

BA will launch daily flights to San Diego with B772 from 1st June.