Virgin to launch Dubai in October 2024. Winter seasonal, 4 times a week with 787-9.
Thanks to Sean on Twitter for the info

​​​​​VS LHR-DXB "resumes" on the 28 October 2023.

China Southern to Beijing. Is that a restart or new? China routes certainly picking up again. But will they all last…?

CZ673/674 PKX is a new one, CA remain at PEK and BA moved to PKX. They are using the old Wuhan flight nos but more importantly, the flight doesn't appear to have operatd yet despite FR24 having plans since the start of the summer season.

Until Daxing opened and then delayed growth due to the impact of COVID China Southern only had European traffic rights issued by the CAAC to Amsterdam and that was due to historical reasons and aircraft performance from Guangzhou when they originally started flying some years ago
China Southern are the chosen vehicle for the projected expansion at Daxing
This has simply been delayed due to other events ( now where to LHR slots have be acquired is another question)

Indeed prior COVID and their withdrawal the A380 was earmarked for the proposed London service

They're using the 2017-2019 Wuhan flight nos. so I imagine from those existing slots? Wuhan (birthplace of COVID19) of all the inbound Chinese destinations has not restarted.

LATAM Airlines (Peru) have acquired slots to launch five weekly flights between Lima and London Heathrow in W23.

Credits to @SeanM1997 on Twitter for this info.

Saudia seem to be operating SV101 / 102 between LHR and Neom Bay (NUM/OENN) which is a bit of a commercial ghost town. Any idea why this relative backwater now has a London link?

Because the it's the Saudi's pet project and they seem to think people are going to want to flock there.

Hey - if you can sell Dubai you can sell anywhere.......................

ALL BA flights cancelled into LHR yesterday evening (20 June 2023) but no explanations given, anyone any ides why please?

I'm stuck in Munich waiting for my replacement flight this evening, but I guess there are worse places to be stuck.

Lots of thunderstorms I believe. Not all flights cancelled, I know AMS-LHR and DUS-LHR were delayed a few hours.

Thanks, we had storms here too, but not until after the scheduled departure time. I guess they could have been wherever the a/c started out from too, not necessarily LHR

What do people think of Thomas Woldbye, the (shortly to be former) MD of CPH taking over at LHR ?
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/30/heathrow-appoints-copenhagen-airport-boss-as-new-ceo
CPH seems to be pretty well run - my personal opinion is positive - but I'd be keen to know what others think on this

the problem isn't the CEO - it's the scheming money grabbing owners - who will probably do a Thames Water on us

No, the CEO has been part of the problem.

Over the years, I've had frustrating dealings with Holland-Kaye, who tacitly admitted that Heathrow was making up stats to try to show improvements in airline environmental performance, ignoring repeated requests to substantiate them.

It would be good to see the company being led by someone who has a somewhat healthier relationship with the truth - we can but hope.

From an airport smaller than Manchester, quite a jump in scale and complexity

And from an airport better run, and miles ahead, of Manchester.

So the CEO of a multi billion pound company just happened to mention to you he was making up numbers in order to mislead people? Shareholders? MPs? Regulators?
Cool story bro!

Not been paying attention, have you SOF?

Oh dear.

Sadly, I neglected to ask JH-K if others had also requested substantiating evidence behind some of the cr@p that Heathrow publishes, so I can't tell whether discovering that there isn't any makes me uniquely privileged. :ugh:

DRUK has often documented how LHR fiddles all sorts of "consumer facing " numbers

Numerous companies make up numbers. Some at the lower stretches of manager to make it look good and some from the very top. Seen it done at first hand. Nothing new and anyone who believes company PR deserves to be misled.

If it’s of any consolation to you Dave, I generally regard your posts as factual & believable. I don’t know who you are, but there is a creditability in what you say - maybe not everything, but enough to make me think that you know what you’re doing. That, & my own experience in aviation management & operations.
keep going.

Yes - we don't always agree but I believe your numbers...........

I fully support the comments of DRUK re LHR & JHK. He has assisted myself (and in turn residents) many times in disputing the publications made by LHR. We are now on the fourth noise action plan, the preceding having achieved zero.
They now admit that alternate operations on the northern runway MAY start in 2028, 15 yrs since the withdrawal of the Cranford agreement.

Are the aprons and taxiways around Terminal 2 now finally complete?
And are there any plans to refurbish or even replace Terminal 3?

Believe so. Certainly the taxiway between terminal 2 and the pier is now in use along with the 2 new stands. They need to finally demolish terminal 1 and build on that before tackling terminal 3.

WHAT????

Do something logical at LHR.... that'll be a first............................ they probably need the money from the new shops in a rebuilt T3 to pay for the demolition

Surprised at the W23 cuts for Asiana to ICN.
All their Euro international services dropping frequencies. Wonder why?

I guess consolidation as they are merging with Korean Air.

Haven’t Asiana/Korean had to hand back slots for competition purposes?

I'm certain that Asiana did the same thing during winter 2022/23 and went from 7 to 5 weekly flights from Seoul to London Heathrow.

The merger between Asiana and Korean Air hasn't been fully approved so it has nothing to do with having to give up slots.

Even though the EU and UK authorities have both given Asiana and Korean Air the green light for the planned merger the US Department of Justice has yet to do so. Until Asiana and Korean Air get final approval from the US DOJ the planned merger remains in a stalemate.

No flights and slots have been withdrawn from either airline. Although this was part of the agreement regarding the merger plans they would not come into affect until there is a final approval from all concerned. Once the merger does get final approval from the US DOJ it's expected that Asiana will initially operate as a subsidiary of Korean Air before it's fully implemented into the airline.

This of course doesn't mean that Asiana and Korean Air haven't colluded in cutting capacity during the winter 2023/24 season. With both Asiana and Korean Air serving the Seoul to London Heathrow route there's enough capacity between them during the winter season. The same can be said for other European routes where both airlines are operating alongside each other.

Commencing 1st Aug, China Eastern have begun a 3rd Shanghai-London rotation, MU533/534 PVG-LHR-PVG 0645-1100 on the A332 in addition to the existing B77Ws on PVG-LHR and PVG-LGW.
Both BA and Virgin provide the British competition making a total of 5 daily flights on London-Shanghai.

Had the ' Joy ' of flying into Heathrow for the first time since Covid at the end of a 28 HR flight from Brisbane and was pleasantly surprised how simples and quick it was....However our onward travel was to and change in London and beyond and the Elizabeth Line was the most convenient.

However finding the Liz Line from T2 was a mission. The signage wanted us to use the Heathrow Express to Paddington at what would be more than twice the price we paid for the Liz Line. ...ok own it's time Vs price..but in my opinion it would be a rip off..
.
Foreign residents that don't know BEWARE....

Elizabeth line and Heathrow express share the same line. You have to listen/read what train is coming.

I used contactless on the HEX recently, how was that anymore expensive than the Elizabeth Line?

The Elizabeth Line fare (£12.20) is around half that of the on-the-day ticket / contactless fare of the Heathrow Express (£25). The ticket barriers within Paddington are set up to recognise this.

​​​​​​
Yup, I worked that one out as I edited a typo on my question, thought I had deleted it and gotten away with it. Argh 🤣 No barriers on that platform at Paddington gave me a false sense of security. Money well spent though as I just made my flight at LCY....

In the last 5-10 years, it seems like the proportion of flights at LHR which are longhaul has increased... with shorthaul outside July/August being just the strongest of potential routes. Is this just my perception or is this borne out in the data ? I've been finding in the last 6 months that O&D BA shorthaul oneway at LHR is increasingly priced far, far above equivalent flights at LGW, LTN and STN
Is there a risk that LHR becomes substantially a long-haul-only airport by 2033 ? Maybe with a little bit of BA shorthaul being retained for the sake of tradition... :-)