Why can the rest of the world seemingly manage? US airports have rebounded and seem fine.

Not everyone has the option to stay home indefinitely. Even at the peak lots of had no option but to travel weekly - now nearly 18 months on, people have affairs which need sorting - people haven’t seen their families, some of whom may be sick or not long left or need help with their children etc. It’s not always Mr and Mrs Smith off to Malaga.

And have you seen the results of the day 2 testing? Barely anyone from Green and Amber countries has tested positive. You have more chance of catching covid in the queue at Tesco than you do at Heathrow.

HAL back to both runways, traffic numbers accelerating?

Yes, gradually.

Average daily movements:
May: 374
June: 455
July to date: 512

This taxiway work with closure of two exits for runway 09R/27L may also be a factor for introducing dual runway ops
ttp://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/aip/current/misc/SUP/EG_Sup_2021_032_en.pdf

Well they won’t do the work on 09L so it can be used for alteration of runways ☹️

And just to encourage passengers back to LHR!

https://www.heathrow.com/transport-a...rop-off-charge

Simple greed, nothing else

I have noticed numerous companies trying to claw back some of their losses. We went to a restaurant for the first time a couple of weeks ago. The prices were riduclous, service slow and food very average. This kind of action will start pushing at inflation.

LHR are probably saying that it is to encourage people to use public transport. A week ago I took my partner's daughter and son in law to T5 to visit his parents in Madrid. They could have taken a taxi (some 30 miles), a taxi, a train and then a coach or other permutations. They would have difficulty doing that for an 05:30 check in! Even if it had not been the case that she is four months pregnant.

So many companies have such high levels of debt and shareholders demanding returns. But this is what a financial crisis looks like.

Probably not "clawing back some of their losses", but having to pay more to get any staff willing to work. With less staff service will be slow, food not so good (chefs have more choice than ever picking their employer), and with rising food prices and salaries expensive. Small family businesses willing to exploit themself might be the "winners". I wish them luck and the means to have the occasional weekend off.

This is not clawing back money. They are cutting back on emissions, in the CTA etc, and just moving it another space which they do not monitor.
Don’t worry about pick up, you are still forced to use their car parks, so a ridiculous situation might occur, where it is cheaper to go in the arrivals car park drop off, pax walk a bit further, and you keep dry. Wait for the price hike to match🤣

I have used Arrivals for Departures and vice versa at several of the terminals over the years. It depends on the day and time of day. Before mobile phones you had to agree in advance. Now it's easy.

PAXboy

Yes, its all to do with discouraging car travel into the airport, and was actually due to be brought in just before Covid hit, as there were notices going about in late 2019 about it when I was working at T2.

And yet not long ago

they were planning to axe free bus travel around the airport perimeter

I haven’t had reason to use the buses around the airport this year…I assume it actually did get axed…

They have already axed subsidies to local non tfl bus companies, which staff used. On top of that Slough Council, took as much they could from HAL coffers, and now in serious £££ trouble.

Thanks for the update.

I heard about Slough being in difficulties..:E …Sorry to hear about the bus services, I was a frequent user between T5/central area and one or two of the perimeter hotels until this all kicked off.

The Guardian reports:
If they have also:
I do think they will grab every pound they can.

While sympathetic to an extent, look at the whopping dividends LHR paid out to its shareholders in the good times. Maybe keeping a bit more in reserves would have been smarter.

Indeed willy wombat but in the last decades the shareholder has become king. Not to mention that, payouts to shareholders also mean payouts to the CEO and those with their feet under the big table. In the last 35 years, the stock market has gone right back to the casino age, with predictable results.

Could not be bothered to spend on taxiways to allow northern to be used for departures ☹️