LHR runway headings

[togsdragracing]

Please accept my apologies if this has been covered, just point me in the right direction and I'll go away :)

I am not imagining LHR's runways being 28L and 28R several years ago, am I (as in maybe thirty years ago)? When were they changed to 27L and 27R and why?

[Double Hydco]

I'm not sure when LHR changed from 28L/R to 27L/R, but this is why:

"The reason for the change is due to the drifting Magnetic North Pole which continually moves over the Earth’s surface, on average by 0.14 degree a year. As the Runway remains in a fixed location, there will be a requirement for all Runways to redesignate at some point."

Incidentally, STN changes from 23/05 to 22/04 on 2nd July 09.

DH

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

2nd July 1987 was the date.

[wobble2plank]

Seem to remember in the very, very, very distant past LHR was to have (or had) 6 runways set as three parallel pairs in a star arrangement.

05/23 was the last remainder until it was made into Link 29. :(

[Groundloop]

In the initial plan Heathrow was to have NINE runways. It did have six in the early days.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Indeed, 9 runways! The original 1946 plan called for the airport to be built in three stages. Imagine the airport, as we know it today, with the two E-W runways, plus 23L/R and 15L/R.. The three runways which did not materialise were planned to be north of the existing airport in a triangular layout, with the apex to the north, and were somewhat shorter than the others. Had they been built Harmondsworth, Sipson and part of West Drayton would not have existed as we know them.

[Rainboe]

Maybe there is still time to make them 'not exist'! That land north of the A4 up to the M4 is the natural location for expansion. LHR needs to get on and DO SOMETHING- Europe is taking over fast, if not already. LHR should not be known as such a nightmare if we are to keep the business. We can't afford to let the UK become a backwater of Europe- there's little enough we do well (car building, ship building, Engineering, Agriculture.........). We do aviation and commercial life pretty well (until last year!). Without aviation and the business it brings, the UK doesn't have a great deal these days! So if it means 'bye bye Sipson, Harmondsworth and West Drayton', do you think they could take Cranford as well as part of a deal?

[Tail-take-off]

05/23 was the last remainder until it was made into Link 29.

Shame they didn't reserve link 23 for r/w 23:(

[WHBM]

The real problem that Heathrow has got into is that some years ago it was the main part of the sell-off into BAA Ltd, trying to get the highest possible value for it, then at the height of the economic boom BAA managed to sell themselves out ("Hostile Bid" ?? Ha Ha !!) to Spanish investors Ferrovial for a huge amount (the £10bn often quoted is just the start, there were huge fees and funding costs on top of that). Ferrovial have obviously bitten off more than they can chew, and their entire focus (being financiers, not aviation people) is to maximise their Return on Investment, not the investment of what the airport is worth but the inflated price they paid for it.

So there's no meaningful money for investment because it's all flowing out back to Spain to pay off the borrowings and to fund the Return on Huge Overvalued Investment

Part of what gave the over-inflated value was playing a punt that, while charges etc at Heathrow are regulated, it is such a key part of the UK economy that the owners can blackmail the regulator that they will not do anything if they are not allowed to hike those fees considerably. Which was pointed out at the time of the takeover bid, when the government could have stopped it, and is exactly what has happened. This is notwithstanding that the non-regulated part of the income (retail, car parking, charging for all and sundry, etc) continues to be cranked ever-upwards, and is now the majority of the income.