https://mediacentre.heathrow.com/pre...ional-24/14076

The world from inside HAL.

Departing pax cap of 100,000 extended to end of October
https://news.sky.com/story/heathrow-...tober-12673916
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62550600

Once schools resume in early September, a lot of the bottlenecks should presumably clear - i.e. many of the once per year travellers disappear, children largely disappear, to be replaced by regular travellers who need less hand-holding to make their way through the airport.
I suspect that what appears in the news is less than half the story... anyone able to explain what's really going on, what the root cause of the problem is now (not what the problem was 3 months ago), and why the cap needs to be extended until the end of October instead of ending in early September (with maybe a brief re-imposition over half term in October) ?

Lots of students for a start...

Starts with a b, ends with a t. You can’t mention it though, but if you do it definitely won’t be that it’ll be something else.

We don't actually know how the cap is being administered - it may not affect all airlines proportionately.

Also starts with 'B' and ends with 't; but has "bull" in there as well.
If by Brexit you mean there's now a more limited supply of young and keen novices who'll be willing to work for appaling money until they wisen up and move on then you might have a point, otherwise you'll find that basement terms and conditions had hit rock bottom for getting to a West London airport at 4am on a zero hours contract post pandemic just isn't something you or I would do.There's not enough people daft enough to work for poverty wages anymore, supply and demand has benefits as well as pittfalls IMHO. Depends from where you're sipping a latte really....
The fact that furlough ending meant that many previousy loyal people were dropped by 3rd party handlers very quickly meant there was no motivation to come back to the same employer, and so many simply left the industry. And who can blame them?

Heathrow says a key issue is lack of baggage handlers.

Then why restrict passengers who are on that new industry phenomena, hand baggage only fares ?

And before anyone says "Oooh, there are other problems as well", the Heathrow PR today specifically mentioned just the baggage handlers.

And there it is. It’s definitely not that.

The point about lousy pay and unsocial hours is a fair and plausible one if you’re looking at Heathrow in absolute isolation. The problem is there’s plenty of sectors struggling and they aren’t all low wage low skill. Even if it’s a small part of the problem the B word is ‘never’ a factor and until we can have an honest conversation about that and how we sensibly manage and mitigate, the country and economy will continue to limp on.

A departing cap of 100,000, what about arrivals, how will they get home, and who will handle the incoming baggage?🤣

followed by :
Has Holland-Kaye submitted his resignation yet ? Has Grant Shapps called for it (and if not why not) ? And what about the useless Heathrow "Chairman", Lord Deighton, who has done blow all and had blow all visibility through all this, despite being top of the management tree.

A friend came in from Nuremberg on BA a few days ago post Wagner opera. BA flight 2hrs late and bags collection took 1.5 hrs at LHR. He is surprised I never use the place unless my arm is almost broken.

Cheers
Mr Mac

Virgin/SkyTeam
 

With Virgin now joining SkyTeam, Terminal 3 is fast becoming the new home it seems of the SkyTeam alliance at Heathrow, along with Delta and Air France/KLM to name a few.

Is this part of a longer term plan and to potentially shift OneWorld into Terminal 4? - Or would this be totally unachievable with current capacity?

SkyTeam were in T4, they only moved Delta across because they wanted to be able to use the Virgin Clubhouse. It is noticeable that once T4 reopened, Air France, KLM, and Aeromexico all stayed in T3. This leaves T4 with China Eastern, ITA, Kenya Airways, Korean Air, Saudia, TAROM and Vietnam Airlines. MEA was always T3 and never made the T4 move and China Airlines remains in T2.

Any news on the taxiway and additional stands between T2 and the pier finally opening? Never known A project like that take so long. The stands must be very much needed by now. Also the taxiway will save tonnes of fuel.

It's only one maybe two more stands? Stand 236 has become 237 to make it 231-233 and 237-239 so currently six in use with eight on the 240s on the other side, so probably two more gates to come.

looks 4 in total on Google maps. 2 on the pier and two remote stands opposite. The taxiway will save so much fuel so really surprised there hasn’t been more urgency to get this completed. Absolutely no news on the internet about it. Very odd.

"The taxiway will save so much fuel so really surprised there hasn’t been more urgency to get this completed. "

it would save the Airlines money - but not LHR plc :(

Airline benefits surely equals pressure from the AOC on HAL? And fuel savings equals lower emissions and surely a good news story for HAL given the current "climate"

Have heard Kilo middle section will be finished in a week or so but work is planned in the northern section straight after lasting for several weeks so through route probably open early December.

This project has taken absolutely ages to complete but why. I to have also tried to search online for more details but to no avail. Other than the extra stands that have been completed what has actually been done on this section of Kilo for it to have taken so long. The whole of Terminal 2 was completed in less time than the longstanding works on this section of apron. I should imagine that once the construction of Terminal 2C finally gets underway we're probably see a similar project.

Regarding Terminal 1, does anyone know why it hasn't already been partially demolished. I would have thought that the adjoining and unused car park would have at least been demolished by now.

I'm looking forward to the day when Terminal 1 is finally demolished and construction of the Terminal 2 extension along with Terminal 2C finally gets underway.

Sotonsean - New underground baggage system for T2 which is extremely complex and a major project, The excavations to do this were massive, plus of course delays due Covid etc. .

"Airline benefits surely equals pressure from the AOC on HAL"

a mere bagatelle compared to the pressure from the owners to get those dividends flowing I'm afraid

I had reason to visit Heathrow yesterday in search of the drop off for Terminal 3. What a nightmare. All was going well until we got close to the terminal’s short term car park where the signage ended. I was left with the option of entering the multi-storey in the hope that the ground floor was the drop off zone or now following the airport exit signs. More by luck than judgement I decided to follow the exit signs and eventually came across the drop off zone on the left.

Thanks for confirming. Would be good to see this finally finished.

One other thing I find strange is why some of the stands at the T5 piers don’t have air bridges. Can’t see any reason from Google maps why all the stands couldn’t have air bridges and indeed the stands at the T2 pier all have them.

The size of the satellites was downsized when BAA / HAL cut the funding, so the building isn't as long as the parking apron. With T5B it means that stand 531 is remote as is 541, adjacent 542 is served by a very, very long glass walkway to the gate. T5C is similar and even smaller with 567 and 568 remote as well as 551 and 558. 557 has THE longest walk from the gate to the airbridge on the airport.

Thanks for confirming. I did think it was odd that the buildings themselves were not long enough. It still looks like the remote stands could be served by long air bridges like the ones you mention but maybe they are a step too far. I hate this sort half way house to save a few pennies. It can’t be great having to bus in passengers for a wide body.

Heathrow August 2022
 

Top 20 International Routes (% compared to 2019):

1. New York JFK 224,152 -26.8%
2. Dubai 203,315 -8.9%
3. Doha 163,691 16.6%
4. Los Angeles 131,880 -8.2%
5. Dublin 126,041 -25.0%
6. Frankfurt 106,113 -32.2%
7. Istanbul 100,819 1.0%
8. Chicago 99,835 -24.4%
9. San Francisco 99,041 -4.6%
10. Singapore 98,363 -32.1%
11. Amsterdam 96,069 -32.8%
12. Madrid 96,059 -17.7%
13. Munich 90,496 -25.1%
14. Boston 87,648 -16.0%
15. Delhi 86,879 27.2%
16. Abu Dhabi 84,062 -33.6%
17. Lisbon 83,856 -4.3%
18. Toronto 78,385 -33.0%
19. Athens 77,801 7.9%
20. Paris 77,761 -26.9%

Top 10 International Routes with BA as the sole operator (% compared to 2019):

1. Barcelona 38,996 -44.0%
2. Larnaca 35,377 25.0%
3. Prague 30,249 -24.9%
4. Budapest 29,413 -24.1%
5. Berlin 27,215 -57.0%
6. Malaga 26,985 93.7%
7. Palma de Mallorca 24,495 7.3%
8. Venice 24,256 35.6%
9. Milan Malpensa 23,955 -64.7%
10. Naples 22,808 NEW

Top 10 Asia Routes (% compared to 2019):

1. Singapore 98,363 -32.1%
2. Delhi 86,879 27.2%
3. Mumbai 50,813 5.6%
4. Bangkok 45,208 -36.4%
5. Kuala Lumpar 29,838 -30.8%
6. Tokyo 25,814 -60.2%
7. Hong Kong 24,044 -83.4%
8. Colombo 18,360 3.4%
9. Hyderabad 17,584 47.6%
10. Seoul 17,424 -67.6%

Top 10 New International Routes not served in 2019:

1. Orlando 50,673
2. Milan (Linate) 39,137
3. Bridgetown 25,882
4. Naples 22,808
5. Porto 16,920
6. Valencia 12,873
7. Tirana 12,552
8. Heraklion 10,055
9. Halifax 9,432
10. Dalaman 8,717

Total PAX January - August 2022 = 43,504,573

Source: CAA

Surely Milan-Linate was served in 2019?

No data showing in August 2019 figures from CAA for this route at all.

Indeed it was, by both BA and AZ. But both dropped the route at the end of July and didn't resume until W2019.

Linate was closed from late July until October 2019 for runway resurfacing

That explains it. Thanks.

Taxiway Kilo
 

Taxiway Kilo is no longer a cul-de-sac. Taxiway Kilo officially re-opened this morning Thursday 6 October with the first aircraft using it getting a water cannon salute.

Although this has only recently been discussed there appears to be absolutely nothing regarding the construction on the Heathrow Airport website or the construction company's. No updates online whatsoever. I read about the re-opening and saw the photo on LinkedIn a couple of hours ago.

No doubt prompted by today being an AIRAC day.

As mentioned previously I understand the north end of Kilo will be closed off shortly until early December for lighting related works.

Great news. Thanks for flagging this up. I wonder what the next construction project will be. Really weird that there is nothing on their site news wise.

Was NOTAMed
TRIGGER NOTAM - PERM AIRAC AIP AMDT 10/22 WEF 06 OCT 22.
TWY K COMPLETE. NEW HOLD K2. BEALINE APRON EDITORIAL. NEW STANDS 235
AND 236. 06 OCT 00:00 2022 UNTIL 19 OCT 23:59 2022. CREATED: 25 AUG 00:05 2022