Heathrow announce yet more consultations (roadshows), and delays to submission of DCO to later this year

https://mediacentre.heathrow.com/pre...-News-23/11951

Thanks. I knew the connection was free - it's a bout trying to save time after 12 hours overnight!

Great news... looks like HAL are going bear the full cost of expansion according last nights Evening Standard.

No problem with that if they want the go ahead from me,.

Thst said I'm slightly baffled as to why its part of a review of Government spend ......

If there is NO government spend ???????????


"No 10 last night doused media speculation that Mr Johnson could axe the scheme as part of a Cabinet review of “sacred cows” and wasteful spending. A spokesman said Heathrow expansion involved no public spending."


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sta...541.html%3famp

Regarding the expansion. The article says:
So that's back into the long grass then :} He could 'start' to make a decision in Dec 2020 and might have an answer by summer 22. However, if he gest replaced during that time, then the new person will be given time to get up to speed.

As I have said before, ain't going to happen.

Regarding my parking question:
I held off phoning the expensive LHR enquiry line and investigated the Northern Perimiter Road by G maps.

The answer is that the Business park for T2+3 is immediately adjacent to Long term T5 (NOT Pod parking) and, further, there is no fence between the zones as they share an exit. So I can book and park in the T5 section and take their bus. On the return, take the Biz Park bus from T3. Hopefully that will be 'simples'.

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38...rom-june-2020/

Capacity to Beijing really being ramped up now as China Southern join Air China on Beijing-London, ending the one route, one operator policy.

Southern versus northern runway
 

This week all arrivals up to 3pm are
meant to be on the southern runway at LHR. Any ideas why aircraft were landing on the northern runway from 5am onwards?

I think it's to reduce noise to local residents

yes, the runway alternation is reduce noise for residents but as it is designated as the southern runway for this week, why were they landing on the north so early?

During the early hours, both runways are used for arrivals.

Surely it still changes every 24 hours at 1500 but only when on westerlies. It has done the last few times I've been spending the day in W London.

At night (23:30 to 06:00) a different alternation scheme applies.

Having said that, the first landing on the northern runway this morning wasn't till 6 am, not 5 am.

I was under the impression that lhr don’t operate such a night time regime. Have looked for such info and cannot find it.

There were a number heavy arrivals on the northerly runway this morning.

You are mistaken. See Runway Alternation Programme 2020 - Landings (Page 2 - Night-time runway alternation).

Yes, I counted around 17 between 06:00 and 07:00, in addition to the simultaneous arrivals on the southern runway. Same things happens almost every day during that hour (see above link).

Thanks for the feedback.

"Heathrow reports outstanding end to 2019"
 

https://www.heathrow.com/latest-news...ng-end-to-2019

Except that the tables don’t actually reflect that change at all - airline fleet composition makes no difference at all to the average Fly Quiet score.

Because the Fly Quiet programme score per airline is based on relative, rather than absolute performance (i.e. Airline A is better/worse than Airline B), there is no appreciable difference in the average score per airline from one quarter’s results to the next.

In fact, the average Fly Quiet score awarded by Heathrow of 752 points per airline in the most recent table is LOWER than it was when the current scheme started in 2017 (762) !

See https://www.heathrowflyquietandgreen.com/2019-qtr-3rd/

https://www.cityam.com/ferrovial-add...-over-returns/

This has always been a concern. LHR is a cash cow with demand which will ALWAYS be insatiable
3rd runway will quell that demand and dilute shareholder value dramatically.

By time the 3rd runway is built LHR will need a 4th

interesting Norwegian have given up their recent limited LHR slot pairs.

Who has taken these slots instead?

According to someone who works at Norwegian at Gatwick, word from the Norwegian route planners is that the slots were put aside by Heathrow specifically for an Orlando service but Norwegian couldn't make it work due to their aircraft and crew situation, so LHR - MCO was never going to happen despite them getting the slots awarded.

​​​​​How true that is I can't comment, I don't have any direct or regular contact with anyone at Norwegian

Already needs a 4th rwy, needed a 3rd rwy back in 1977 when the government declared Heathrow to be "full".

So put a second runway at Gatwick and give the capacity the south east needs. You know it makes sense.

I asked the same question last year, and did so in reverse - departing from T3 and back to T5. In the end I parked on the Long Stay T5 car park (for a quick getaway, on return) and walked through to the T2/3 biz park to get to T3 for my departure. To be on the safe side, I asked one of the bus drivers (nicely) if it was OK and he pointed me in the direction of the non existent fence...and as he was going on his break / ending his shift, we walked through to the Biz park together (where the drivers' facilities must be).

and another at Stansted ........................

Agree totally with that argument. It will bring much needed competition to the south east, make it cheaper for airlines and free up
access to slots. Heathrow wants it all and the only ones who will benefit are the airport shareholders. Airlines, passengers and people under the flight paths over London are the ones who are disadvantaged.

Here we go again ...

Maybe they could set up a study group to look at hub capacity options in SE UK. They could call it - let me think - how about the Airports Commission ?

Oh, hang on ...

But Dave - every time they say build another runway at LHR it never happens

To quote W C Fields "try try again, and then quit - no point in being a damn fool about it"

HAL IT issue tonight causing issue with baggage, stand allocation, flight info screens. Bad enough with weather cancellations... doesn't sound great for BA especially

Is there something amiss at Heathrow today? A few inbound flights from the US have done circuits around the Chippenham area, while another handful are doing something similar in the Worcester/Birmingham area.

The arrival rate is down, but only slightly - 169 landings by 10:00 compared to 176 yesterday.

They lost one runway for a while, clearing up a hydraulic leak. Quite a few inbounds holding en-route, with a few diversions too.

Reported on most of the red-tops’ website, plus here: https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/19/plane...hrow-12265820/

Must have been an interesting few minutes for ATC, with 5 consecutive missed approaches.

The aircraft causing the aggravation was G-XWBD. It seems G-XWBD may be an "unlucky" aircraft. Or maybe poorly built! The aircraft had a hydraulic issue at Toronto on 12th Feb.
Just 4 days after return to Heathrow, yet another hydraulic issue. And weren't there rumours about nose gear mishaps at Toulouse prior to delivery?

The story is it was “hit in the hangar” at Blagnac not long before it was due to be delivered.

I don’t think we ever really found out what did the hitting and where.....

Wonder if Boris Johnson will see this as a convenient excuse to ditch the idea and push for regional conectivity?

The various legal teams will be leaping for joy at the cash creation ( I won’t call it earning) possibilities of this decision.
David

Cranford agreement
 

So I assume Heathrow will now go ahead with their granted planning permission to amend the taxiways etc to allow departures on the Northern runway. This will relieve residents in the west of the 18 hours of landings whilst on easterly ops.(Westerly ops have a change at 3pm). They ignored their own application to wait for R3 DCO before going ahead as it would cost £'s, significantly less than the PR budget £££'s

Funny how there are never nimby complaints about expansion transport infrastructure projects in places such as Japan …. with excellent airports and high speed rail.

Announced on BBC, Heathrow are to appeal the decision.