HEATHROW

[EISNN]

can anyone explain what's going on in LHR the last three days. have met a good few people coming off flights from there saying that they've been on their plane and had doors closed up to 15 minutes early and they waited on their stand for between 20 and 30 mins and then taxiied for about 20 mins? they said that it was a runway closed for resurfacing purposes. what runway is closed? or is that even the real reason?

[Fosters]

It is not runways that are closed, but specific taxiways that are closed for repairs.

Believe most of these closures are on the 09L/27R side of the airfield.

Fosters

[Nubboy]

Easterly winds means departures from 09R, which for flights from Terminal 1 is a very long hike (not to be compared with 36L at AMS though)

[Globaliser]

Heathrow website information here: Temporary changes to Heathrow runway alternation.

[AvWRup]

Heathrow T5 gets mobbed Heathrow T5 gets mobbed

[Kavs8]

Anyone no whats going on in Heathrow today, lots of flights cancelled and delayed??

[Charley B]

Thick Fog!!

[Wycombe]

It's more than a bit foggy along the M4 corridor today, that might be it.

Not so bad at LHR, but LVP's will be in force I suspect:

EGLL 161320Z 07003KT 0800 R27L/0375 R27R/0750 FG BKN001 05/04 Q1021

[Kavs8]

Yea from that there visibility is substantially reduced no wonder flights are so delayed, also would heathrow delays in atc affect Gatwick, Stansted, Luton or City airports? Also suprising is that there was no SPECI released...

LATEST METAR BELOW:

EGLL 161520Z VRB03KT 0200 R27R/0450 R27L/0550 FG VV/// 05/05 Q1019

[jpthomas72]

BA move LUX from LGW to LHR

... people on airliners.de spotted this: BA is moving its Luxembourg (LUX) flight from Gatwick with B737 to Heathrow with A319/320 on 27th March 2011. This is a 12/7, twice on working days, once Sat/Sun. This is a clever move as that will allow again long-haul connections via LHR, which LGW didn't really have. LUX is probably the best way to avoid Germany's new air-tax from Western Germany, easy to reach and very nice new terminal building. I like LGW as it's close to the south coast and has less delays than LHR, but that's a specialist's preference. Interestingly, Luxair used to go to LHR, but were pushed to go to LCY. Which meant LHR connections didn't work anymore from LUX thereafter.

[Street]

Etihad - Luxair LHR deal?

Luxair used to fly twice daily to LHR. I think Etihad is using their slots
on a 5-year agreement. Perhaps they will come back.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by Street

Luxair used to fly twice daily to LHR. I think Etihad is using their slots
on a 5-year agreement. Perhaps they will come back.

I would guess Luxair make far more from renting their slots out to Etihad than ever they could make in profit operating into LHR from Luxembourg.

[Skipness One Echo]

I think the issue was that they had a morning and and afternoon slot but no evening slot. They were unable to acquire one as I heard that BAA weren't keen to allocate it to an ERJ-145. Quite how that tallies with bmi I know not.

Hence Luxair now operate four daily from London City with convenient departures spread throughout the day. Not sure why Luxair lost their evening slot if thet ever had one at Heathrow but it undermined the competitivness of the route.

[Baltasound]

Interesting article on Heathrow and potential links to it in Decembers edition of Modern Railways if folk are interested.

[legallooptheloop]

I posted something similar on the BHD thread a couple of days ago, but does anyone in the know have any idea if LHR is likely to be operational during the mid-morning tomorrow?

I'm due to fly out between 11 and 12, having suffered 2 cancellations over the course of the last 2 days. Seriously disappointing.


Cheers for any info, it would be much appreciated.

[MAN777]

With the closure and operational difficulties at LHR I am puzzled as to why there has been very little discussion about it. Is nobody interested ?

Up here at MAN all you need is a sparrow to fart and there are dozens of posts.

Come on there must be something to discuss / criticise / or applaud.

[bravoromeosierra]

My observation as a passenger attempting to fly yesterday morning: the airport tried too long to say they were open and were coping, when really they might not of been.

[Enji]

if anyone has any information about qatar airways or british airways rebooking i'd appreciate it very much.

girlfriend is coming from qatar airways to london (which got cancelled) and then from london to edinburgh. British airways put an automated answer message whenever you try to call them so i can't get any info at all. I need to know where i stand in rebooking the flight - i don't know when she will be getting the doha to london flight with qatar so she'll be stuck in heathrow unless someone can help me out.

edit to say: my girlfriend is stuck in a hotel in doha - i can't even contact her.

[Skipness One Echo]

I watched Mr Teacher, the dude with the perm from BAA blame BA for cancelling the flying program and claim LHR was operating normally as he was interviewd from the Radisson on Saturday with 27R departures invisible in the blizzard behind him. The fact that he was claiming LHR was operating through this and BA was at fault actaully made my jaw drop as I knew what was going to happen next with that volume of snow to clear. Why the **** didn't he????

Anyway took the Nikon out yesterday intending to get some shots in the snow and also as I'd never seen anything depart 09L ! Bearing in mind that the snow stopped falling some 20+ hours prior to this. Was out on foot from about 2-4:30pm and in that whole time there were the following movements :

BAW269 LHR-LAX
BAW33N LHR-MIA
VIR3J LHR-JFK
SIA317D LHR-SIN
VIR21 LHR-IAD

with
VIR7X LHR-LAX starting and pushing
VIR9987 LHR-??? ready to go.

From the North Perimeter road the airfield was idyllically calm with a single snow blower around T1. The aprons appeared to be pretty much snow bound. Airlines around T1 appeared to have given up and gone home. There were enough cleared taxiways to tow the Emirates A380 from 590 something to the gate. It seems Virgin Atlantic were pretty hard at work getting people out whereas some has just given up. It's not as if there were hundreds of people visible clearing ice and snow. That's what baffled me. The place appeared to be dead. Was it no longer worth the candle to try?

[Seljuk22]

Delta will fly 70 times a week to LHR next summer and all flights op. by a B764
ATL-LHR 11 weekly
BOS-LHR 14 weekly
DTW-LHR 10 weekly
MIA-LHR 7 weekly
MSP-LHR 7 weekly
JFK-LHR 21 weekly

Air Canada will add a second daily flight to Montreal from 15th May. Both flights will op. by a B763. Calgary will have just one daily flight with B77W compared to 12 weekly last summer. Vancouver also with just one daily flight.

Egyptair is planing the A333 instead of the A332 on MS 779/780 from 1st September. MS 777/778 will op. by a B77W.

Emirates EK 005/006 will op. by a B77W instead of the B773 from 1st December.