Did anyone else notice that about 6 GA planes flew in to Heathrow yesterday?

Cannot recall in my lifetime that ever happening!

Interesting - what's your source for that ?

Saw them on FR24 and they were shown as on the ground for a bit too.

That's just a FR24 'quirk' - look at the playback and you'll see they've been flying near LHR and then have dropped out of coverage.

FR24 assumes they've landed at the nearest airport.

probably into White Waltham...............

As explained above, FR24 is mistaken. There was only one GA arrival at LHR yesterday - a Slovakian CitationJet.

Maybe they can convert one of the Terminals (T4) to a temporary hospital - you could do some duty free shopping to while away the stay............

Brilliant idea Asturias56 Line them up on the luggage belts and the medics can stay put, as each new patient is brought to them. Any that don't make it can be loaded into ULDs for moving offsite.
Can't find the right smiley for that but there must be something useful the terminals can be used for. Any further suggestions? or just shuffle me off to JB now ...

Morgues - all that air conditioning going to waste, the ability to handle the vast numbers of non-sentient beings, the bland, easily cleaned decor and transport options

Drifting over to near LCY, the ExCel exhibition centre is to be turned into an emergency hospital, the Army to do the converstion. I also heard (in another country) ice skating rinks being used as temporary morturaries which is a good idea.

Interesting to see that Qantas will operate QF1 and QF2 via Darwin on two days this week, instead of the usual stop in Singapore. As far as I am aware, this would set the record for the longest A380 passenger sector?

QF001 SYD1700 – 2115DRW2300 – 0615+1LHR 388 24MAR20 / 25MAR20
QF002 LHR2035 – 2355+1DRW0115+2 – 0700+2SYD 388 24MAR20 / 25MAR20

Qantas schedules limited-time Darwin – London nonstop A380 service 24/25MAR20

Is that because they will not be fully loaded?

It is apparently due to Singapore closing its doors to all pax, including those transiting from Tuesday 24th March. The Darwin stop will apparently continue until QF2 departs LHR on 27th March, which seems to be the last return sector prior to Qantas pausing their operations.

First ever Darwin London Service..............

In 1935, air travel from Brisbane Australia to London was introduced by Qantas in partnership with Imperial Airways via a series of flights which took over 12 days, it had up to 31 stopovers including Darwin, Singapore, Rangoon, Karachi, Cairo, Brindisi, Paris. At 20,535 km and taking up to 12 day's it was by far the longest air service in the world at the time.

Qantas flew from Brisbane to Singapore to connect with the Imperial Airways flying boat flight to London.

In 1947 when Qantas introduced the Kangaroo route from Sydney to London the journey took four days and included stops in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo and Tripoli. The journey included two overnight stays.

In the 1950's Qantas used the Lockheed Constellation on the Kangaroo route.

In 1959 Qantas introduced the Boeing 707 on the Kangaroo route ceasing the Tripoli call and the overnight stays. Fastest journey time from Sydney to London was 34 HR 30 min with eight stops.

In 1971 Qantas introduced the Boeing 747 between Sydney and London and the Darwin call was illuminated.

BOAC also stopped at Darwin on it's Kangaroo route from 1955 with a Lockheed Constellation LHR, ZRH, BEY, KHI, CCU, SIN, JKT, DRW, SYD

Between June 1964 and October 1964 BOAC introduced Comet 4 service between London and Sydney.

From October 1964 BOAC introduced the Boeing 707 between London and Sydney.
LHR, FRA, BEY, KHI, CCU, SIN, DRW, SYD.

In 1971 BOAC introduced the Boeing 747 on the Kangaroo route illuminating Darwin.

As was often the case with the Kangaroo route, both BOAC and Qantas often swapped and changed and altered the destinations between London and Sydney.

So Darwin has previously served from London in the past and for quite a few years 🤗
​​​​​

Thanks, very enlightening.

Not quite right, I remember operating a 747-100 HKG - DRW - SYD - MEL and staying at the Territorian Hotel Darwin for 2 days before heading south. The was a cyclone I believe in 1974 which put pay to the DRW operation for BA.

I stand corrected on one point 🤗

I did have a feeling that British Airways operated to Darwin with the Boeing 747 during the early 70's but I wasn't 100% sure. Because of the fact that I wasn't totally sure I didn't want to add DRW just in case I was immediately "shot down".

"Cyclone Tracey" devestated the town of Darwin on the 28 December 1974. Qantas established a world record for the most people to ever embark on a single Boeing 747 flight when it evacuated 673 people. It also established a record Boeing 707 flight with 327 people on-board.

With Darwin totally flattened as you rightly pointed out this put paid to British Airways operations at DRW.

Any guesstimates what percentage scheduled flights are down at LHR by now? I hear that FRA, for example, is down 85 percent and MUC more than 90 per cent. LHR still seems to be somewhat busy compared to those figures.

Totals gradually reducing, down to about 250 movements yesterday. Compares to a pre-Covid level of around 1250 movements per day, so currently down by 80%.