As London Heathrow marks 10 years of scheduled Airbus A380 passenger flights we take a look at the prospects of continued Airbus A380 flights from the airport.
Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 London Heathrow (Image Credit: Heathrow)
On 18 March 2008, flight SQ308 arrived at London Heathrow from Singapore Changi airport marking the beginning of scheduled Airbus A380 flights between London Heathrow and Singapore.
It was natural that Singapore Airlines would be the first airline to fly the A380 at Heathrow. The airline had long prided itself on industry firsts and having a young fleet of aircraft. Alas, London was not the first city to be served by the Singapore Airlines A380. That honour was bestowed upon Sydney as few months earlier.
Emirates and Qantas soon followed at London Heathrow. As did Etihad, Korean Air, Malaysian Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Thai Airways, albeit with varying frequencies. Emirates now operates no less than 7 Airbus A380 flights from London Heathrow every day – a reflection of the changing dynamics of aviation in the past ten years. Continue reading “10 Years of the Airbus A380 at London Heathrow”
As Heathrow celebrates the 10th anniversary of the official opening of Terminal 5, we take a look back at how much the airport has changed in ten years.
On 14 March 2008, Her Majesty The Queen officially opened London Heathrow Terminal 5. You can take read the story of its opening here. In the past ten years, London Heathrow has undergone enormous changes so let’s take a look back.
1. Heathrow has got better
Immediately before Terminal 5, BA had the ignominy of being one of the worst airlines in Europe for bagging handling.
Breakdowns in the baggage systems were a frequent occurrence. As was overcrowding in the terminals. Tents made a regular appearance outside Terminal 4 as soon as there was any disruption. Punctuality was similarly bad.
BAA, as it was then known, as owner of Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted was perceived as a byword for a rent-seeking monopoly.
Gatwick and Stansted are now separately owned from Heathrow. After the opening of Terminal 5, Terminal 1 and the old Terminal 2 have closed and been demolished. A new Terminal 2, The Queen’s Terminal, opened in 2014. Terminal 4, which operationally was always on the verge of collapsing in on itself in the last years of BA’s operation, has been refurbished.
Airlines have also regrouped largely around alliance membership with Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam members in Terminals 2, 3 and 4 respectively.
Whilst Heathrow has had some bad moments, notably the weather disruption of December 2010 which exposed very poor working relations between the airport and its airlines, lessons from this and the opening of Terminal 5 have been learned and contingency planning has improved. Continue reading “10 Years of London Heathrow Terminal 5: How Heathrow has changed”
The great merry go round of route changes at London City continues.
Skywork Airlines suspends Basel
Skywork Airlines is to withdraw from London City with the suspension of its route to Basel from Sunday 29 October 2017.
Any one with bookings after this date will be entitled to a full refund. Basel will continue to be served by BA from Heathrow, easyJet from Luton and Gatwick and Ryanair from Stansted. The news was confirmed in a press release last week.
VLM returns to London City
On a more positive note, VLM Airlines is to return to London City.
VLM will take over London City – Antwerp from CityJet from Monday 30 October 2017. VLM will fly to Antwerp three times daily Monday – Wednesday, four times daily Thursday – Friday and twice daily on Sundays.
Flights will be operated with a 50 seat Fokker 50 turboprop aircraft.
London Heathrow Terminal 5 (Image Credit: British Airways)
There has been much interest following an announcement by the US Department for Homeland Security that it is exploring adding US pre-clearance facilities at 10 new airports worldwide.
These airports include London Heathrow and Manchester airport.
Put simply, the benefit of pre-clearance is that passengers clear US customs and immigration at a dedicated facility before boarding the aircraft.
On arrival in the US, the flight is treated in the same way as a domestic flight would and passengers can disembark the aircraft and immediately make their way out of the airport, with no further checks.
Anyone who has experienced immigration queues at the likes of New York JFK and Miami airports can testify to the benefits for passengers.
So will pre-clearance come to London Heathrow?
We hope so. However, there are some challenges.
Currently, transatlantic flights depart from four different terminals (Terminal 2 for United, Terminal 3 for American Airlines, Delta and Virgin Altantic, Terminal 4 for Delta, and Terminal 5 for British Airways).
It would not be feasible, nor desired on the part of the airlines, for all transatlantic flights to depart from one terminal, so each terminal would require its own pre-clearance facilities.
Any attempt to limit pre-clearance facilities to one terminal at London Heathrow is likely to be strongly resisted by those airlines whose passengers would not benefit from pre-clearance.
There is also the amount of available space for pre-clearance facilities. The transatlantic market is by far Heathrow’s biggest long-haul market. There are nearly 30 flights a day from London Heathrow to New York alone. Any facility will have to be of a considerable size to be worthwhile for passengers and compatible with efficient airport operations.
Heathrow airport also receives considerable income from letting terminal space to retailers and is likely to want to be compensated for any loss of income as a result of retail space being sacrificed to make way for pre-clearance facilities. Any attempt by Heathrow airport to be compensated through higher charges to airlines is likely to be strongly resisted by them.
So, many challenges and given the amount of work involved, pre-clearance, if it happens, is likely to be many years away.
London Heathrow Terminal 1, 1969 (Image Credit: Heathrow Airport)
On Tuesday 30 June 2015, London Heathrow Terminal 1 will have closed its doors to passengers for the final time after more than 45 years of operation.
The last remaining resident, British Airways, will disperse its flights from the terminal to Terminals 3 and 5*.
Having opened in 1969, Terminal 1 spent most of its life as the principal hub for short-haul traffic, specifically that of British Airways and the now defunct bmi British Midland. In between the opening of Terminal 5 and the new Terminal 2, it was also home to number of Star Alliance carriers, such as Lufthansa and Swiss.
It has been loved for features such as the former “Zone R” BA premium check-in area and loathed for long walkways and the poor condition of many public areas of the terminal.
In its life the terminal has seen wildcat industrial action, the paralysis of operations due to fog and heavy snow, terrorist threats, fire, and even an altercation that led to the arrest of Snoop Dogg.
London Heathrow Terminal 5 (Image Credit: British Airways)
Ever since London Heathrow Terminal 5 opened seven years ago, a frequent criticism of the terminal has been the absence of a paid-for-access lounge for those who do not have access to BA’s Galleries lounge complex by virtue of frequent flyer status or travel class.
This summer Terminal 5 will gain its own paid-for-access lounge as an “Aspire” lounge is to open in Terminal 5 near Gate 18.
The exact opening date and pricing are yet to be revealed. Though, Aspire do offer annual lounge passes for £259.99 which may work well for some.
We’re not sure why it has taken so long for a lounge to open but this will be a welcome development for many. The standard of third party lounges has improved markedly over the past few years and it should compare favourable to BA’s Galleries Club lounges.
The one point to note is that many BA long-haul flights do depart from the Terminal 5B and 5C satellite terminals and there won’t be paid-for lounge facilities in these satellite terminals.
Update: The opening date of the lounge is Tuesday 4 August 2015 and the cost of lounge access is from £34.99.
London Heathrow Terminal 5 (Image Credit: Heathrow)
The behind the scenes documentary shows no signs of running out of steam. We’ve lost count of the number of train companies, hotels and airlines that have opened themselves up to the cameras! ITV has now commissioned a three part documentary series on London Heathrow.
The documentary is being made by independent production company Raw TV. Production has been underway for some time, with the company actively seeking both frequent and nervous flyers late last year.
Of course, this is not the first time Heathrow has opened itself up to the cameras. The BBC ran “Airport Live” in 2013, as well as the long-running docusoap “Airport”.
We’ll provide an update with an expected transmission date as soon as we hear of it.
Update: Episode 1 of “Britain’s Busiest Airport” premiers on ITV at 9pm on Thursday 4 June 2015. More from the ITV Press Centre.
This follows the announcement ny Heathrow Airport last month of a route development fund to support up to nine new UK domestic routes.
The rationale for this is that the number of UK domestic destinations from London Heathrow has fallen substantially over the past 25 years and does not compare favourably to rival hubs such as Amsterdam. So Heathrow wishes to encourage many more UK domestic routes.
Will we see more UK domestic destinations from Heathrow?
London City airport has received planning permission from Newham Council to make investments in its infrastructure to expand capacity at the airport.
London City airport say that additional runway capacity will enable larger aircraft to operate from the airport and enable the number of flights at the airport to increase from 70,000 to 110,000 (a cap imposed by Newham Council).
London Gatwick Airfield (Image Credit: London Gatwick Airport)
British Airways today, 19 January 2015, confirmed that is to move its entire London Gatwick operation from the North terminal to the South terminal at an as yet unspecified date in November 2016.
The purpose of the move is to allow easyJet to consolidate its London Gatwick operation in the North terminal.
BA will benefit from an upgraded check-in area and a new lounge facility for eligible passengers. BA has confirmed that a new lounge for eligible customers will be constructed in the North terminal.
As BA’s London Gatwick operation involves approximately 60 departures a day, we expect the move will take place in phases.
Perhaps what is more significant are easyJet’s ambitions once it consolidates operations in one terminal.
easyJet currently has 45% of departure and arrival slots at Gatwick, compared to just 16% for BA. Ten years ago, BA had 30% of departure and arrival slots, and easyJet had 13%.
easyJet has made a number of moves in recent years to move it closer to the traditional full service carrier model, such as offering allocated seating and fast track ground facilities.
The one thing easyJet doesn’t do is interline with other airlines (this is where an airline will transfer your bag to another airline’s flight on a connecting ticket). Nor does it codeshare with other airlines. Nor does it offer connections.
Currently, a passenger wishing to fly from say, Edinburgh to Tel Aviv via Gatwick would have to “self-connect” and buy two separate tickets (and hope for the best if things go wrong!).
If easyJet was to move to a traditional “hub” model offering connections and codeshares with other airlines, this could radically change its position in the market and that of London Gatwick. There is certainly precedent for a low cost carrier to do this, as Vueling does at its hub in Barcelona.
This would of course add cost and complexity to easyJet’s operation (which it may be keen to avoid) but connecting traffic could support many more routes from Gatwick.
One other point of note is that Aer Lingus, currently a takeover target for BA’s parent company International Airlines Group, also operates in the South terminal and a consolidation of operations may allow for greater co-operation between BA and Aer Lingus at Gatwick.
