More international travelers pass through London Heathrow than any other airport. This coming March, two major developments within three days of each other will take its annual passenger count of 67.7 million to an even higher level. Terminal 5 opens on March. 27, followed on Mar. 30 by a massive expansion in transatlantic service when the EU-U.S. Open Skies agreement comes into effect.
Looking further ahead, the UK government has indicated it is very close to giving approval to the building of a third runway, which would increase the number of flights into Heathrow by 50 per cent by 2020.
Open Skies
At least eight airlines will launch new services to the U.S. following the 2007 Open Skies aviation agreement, which allows any airline based in the EU or U.S. to apply to fly any route between the two.
In practice, airlines have long been able to launch almost any transatlantic service they want, provided they meet standard requirements governing issues such as safety and financial fitness. The main exception has been Heathrow. Until now, only four carriers have been allowed to fly from there to the U.S.: British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and United Airlines.
Even before Open Skies takes effect, Heathrow is by far the busiest airport in Europe for transatlantic flights, yet average business class fares from there are much higher than from continental European competitors. It is little wonder therefore that several airlines are launching their first ever Heathrow-U.S. services, some of them paying incumbent carriers at the airport tens of millions of dollars for suitable take off and landing slots.
The BCD Travel 2008 Industry Forecast has predicted that business class fares from Heathrow will fall as a result of the schedule expansion. With at least 18 new daily transatlantic flights announced since the forecast was published, that prediction looks increasingly likely to be accurate.
New transatlantic services (all commence 29-30 March and are once daily unless stated otherwise)
First-timers
Los Angeles – London Heathrow (Air France)
Houston – London Heathrow (Continental Airlines) (twice daily)
Newark – London Heathrow (Continental Airlines) (twice daily)
Atlanta – London Heathrow (Delta Airlines)
New York JFK – London Heathrow (Delta Airlines) (twice daily)
Minneapolis/St. Paul – London Heathrow (Northwest Airlines)
Detroit – London Heathrow (Northwest Airlines) (May 1)
Seattle – London Heathrow (Northwest Airlines) (June 1)
Philadelphia – London Heathrow (US Airways)
Incumbent airlines
Dallas/Fort Worth – London Heathrow (American Airlines and British Airways)
Raleigh/Durham – London Heathrow (American Airlines)
Houston – London Heathrow (British Airways) (twice daily)
Denver – London Heathrow (United)
British Airways is also increasing frequencies to New York JFK (55 flights per week), Seattle and Washington. The airline will suspend service between Detroit and London Heathrow.
Terminal 5
On Mar. 27, the 6 billion euro Terminal 5 opens with capacity for 30 million passengers per year. T5 will be occupied solely by British Airways, which claims the new terminal will provide significant improvements in punctuality and baggage handling at the much-criticised airport.
It will also relieve chronic overcrowding in the existing terminals, which were intended to handle only 45 million passengers per year. T2, the oldest terminal at the airport, will close. The remaining three will be reorganized into alliance hubs. Star Alliance will take over T1, while Oneworld will go into T3 and Skyteam into T4. About ten percent of BA’s flights will depart from T3, mainly on routes also flown by fellow Oneworld alliance partners.
T5 is five times bigger than T4, currently the largest terminal at Heathrow. It is spread over five stories, each the size of ten football pitches, and is the largest free-standing building in the UK.
Third runway
Even with T5 opening, Heathrow still faces the problem that its two runways are operating at maximum capacity of 480,000 flights per year, causing significant delays for both departures and arrivals. The airport therefore wishes to build a third runway and maximize use of the two existing ones by allowing them to operate both take-offs and landings.
The proposals would increase the number of flights into and out of Heathrow to 720,000 per year. Although green groups and local residents oppose the plan, it passed the UK government’s environmental appraisal in November, and the government has indicated it is close to giving the project its full backing.
Share this post
Email This Post
Print This Post
Related Posts
This entry was posted
on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 10:02 am and is filed under Industry News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
