Category Archives: Heathrow airport

‘There’s something in the air’: UK airport expansion gears up for takeoff

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Lobbyists are increasingly confident about expansion plans as concerns for the economy start to deepen

The younger, tormented minister mulling his position before the Labour government granted Heathrow’s third runway in 2009 might have been greatly relieved to know that, 15 years later, not a shovel would have touched the ground.

But now, returning to power with a revamped energy and climate brief, Ed Miliband again finds himself in a cabinet which, many in aviation hope, may usher in bigger airports and more flights – as well as enough CO2 emissions to outweigh any new solar farms.

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Border Force staff at Heathrow to take strike action for most of September

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Union says forced changes to working hours and practices have most harmed those with caring responsibilities

Hundreds of Border Force officers at Heathrow will take industrial action for 23 days from the end of the month over a long-running dispute about changes to their terms of employment.

About 650 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will go on strike from 31 August to 3 September at which point a period of work to rule – where no overtime is undertaken and no extra work is done beyond what is contractually required – will begin and continue until 22 September.

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Heathrow says it lost 90,000 transfer passengers after new £10 fee

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Airport says ETA scheme introduced by Conservatives is ‘devastating’ for competitiveness

Heathrow airport has said it experienced a 90,000 decline in passenger numbers on routes included in a £10 a person government scheme.

It described the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) system as “devastating for our hub competitiveness”.

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EasyJet forecasts record-breaking summer as profits jump

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Strong results follow drop in European airline stocks this week after Ryanair reported profit plunge

The budget airline easyJet is predicting a record-breaking summer of travel after profits jumped 16% in its most recent quarter of trading.

The bumper figures come only two days after the rival no-frills carrier Ryanair reported a plunge in earnings and a poor outlook for the holiday getaway season, pushing down many European airline stocks.

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Children near Amsterdam airport use inhalers more, study finds

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Results show increase in symptoms such as wheeziness in presence of high aviation-related ultrafine particles

As the public hearings for London Gatwick airport’s northern runway resume, researchers from the Netherlands have found greater inhaler use in children living near Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

Stand close to a large airport and, if the wind is in the wrong direction, each cubic centimetre of air that you breathe will contain tens of thousands of ultrafine particles (UFP).

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Heathrow expects summer holiday season to be ‘busiest on record’

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Passengers numbers this year predicted to hit 82.4m but airport’s future uncertain, with proposed £6bn sale in doubt

Heathrow is expecting its busiest ever summer holiday season but faces uncertainty over its long-term future as the proposed £6bn sale of the UK’s biggest airport remains in doubt.

The airport said on Wednesday that the summer getaway this year was expected to be “the busiest on record” and promised to have “robust” plans in place to keep the airport “running smoothly”, even if staff strikes held last year are repeated.

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Heathrow urges government to scrap £10 fee for transit passengers

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London hub says charge for overseas travellers using UK airports puts country at competitive disadvantage

Heathrow has called on the government to scrap a new £10 charge for overseas travellers using UK airports to connect to other flights, warning that it puts UK airports at a competitive disadvantage compared with other European rivals.

The government introduced the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) in November for non-UK residents travelling to the UK from Qatar, with a wider rollout for other countries throughout 2024.

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Two passenger planes clip wings on Heathrow runway

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Footage on social media shows wing of Virgin Atlantic plane overlapping wing of BA aircraft

Two passenger planes clipped wings on the runway while one of the aircraft was being towed at Heathrow.

Footage on social media shows the wing of a Virgin Atlantic plane overlapping the wing of a British Airways aircraft while emergency services surround the area at the UK’s busiest airport.

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Liquid restrictions at UK airports to remain in place until June 2025

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Travellers will have to wait another year for 100ml limit to be lifted after government extends deadline for new scanners

Holidaymakers will continue to face limits on the amount of liquid they can carry on flights out of the UK this summer after the government extended the deadline for airports to install new security scanners by a year.

The Department for Transport had previously set a target for the introduction of 3D scanners in all UK airports by 1 June, but this has now been extended by 12 months because some major airports will not be ready in time.

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Heathrow Border Force staff vote to strike in dispute over shift patterns

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No dates announced for industrial action, but stoppages could begin as soon as 8 April, says PCS union

Border Force staff at Heathrow have voted to strike in a dispute over shift patterns.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said 600 of its members, who carry out immigration controls and passport checks, voted 90% in favour of strike action.

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Asylum seekers evacuated from hotel near Heathrow after power failure

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More than 500 people forced to leave site, with some unsure of where to spend the night

There were chaotic scenes on Sunday night as the Home Office carried out a mass evacuation of one of the largest hotels used to accommodate asylum seekers after a failure of the power and water supply.

The hotel near Heathrow airport accommodates more than 500 asylum seekers – a mix of single adults, families, children and babies. The Guardian was sent video footage of adults and children walking around the darkened reception area asking what was happening.

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Saudi Arabia could take ‘effective majority control’ of London Heathrow

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Investors may sell shares to oil-rich state’s Public Investment Fund, which already owns a stake, report says

Saudi Arabia could take effective majority control of London Heathrow, the UK’s major airport, with other investors considering selling their stakes, according to reports.

The oil-rich state’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) allied with private equity investor Ardian to announce the purchase of a 25% stake in the airport last month from Ferrovial, the Spanish infrastructure giant that had been the primary owner of Heathrow for 17 years.

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Passengers trapped on cold, dark trains as travel chaos hits west London

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Faulty electric cables cause hours of disruption for passengers and many people are still trapped onboard trains

Hundreds of passengers have been stuck on cold, dark trains in west London for hours as travellers suffered significant delays due to damaged overhead electric cables.

All trains have been stopped between London Paddington and Reading, Network Rail Western confirmed. Great Western Railway said disruption was expected on the London Paddington to Reading line until the end of Thursday. The disruption also affects the Elizabeth line.

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US economy grew faster than expected as businesses invested – business live

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Rolling coverage of business as US revises up GDP growth in third quarter to fastest pace of 2023

At lunchtime in the UK and western Europe markets are fairly flat all around.

The UK’s benchmark FTSE 100 has barely moved, although grocery delivery company Ocado is the top gainer, up 4.8%. (An Ocado director buying shares may have helped.) Trainer retailer JD Sports was the second biggest, up 4.5%.

These allegations are false, not true, incorrect, are not accurate. And it’s an attempt to undermine the work of the COP28 presidency,

I promise you, never ever did I see these talking points that they refer to or that I ever even used such talking points in my discussions.

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Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund takes 10% stake in Heathrow airport

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Spanish firm Ferrovial sells off holding after 17 years, with other 15% going to French group Ardian

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has taken a 10% stake in Heathrow for £1bn from the Spanish infrastructure company Ferrovial, which is selling off its holding in Europe’s biggest airport after 17 years.

Ferrovial has sold its entire 25% stake in Heathrow’s parent company, FGP Topco, for £2.4bn, with a 15% share of the firm going to the French private equity group Ardian and the rest going to the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).

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Air passengers face further delays after UK air traffic control failure

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Transport minister rules out cyber-attack after hundreds of flights to and from the UK cancelled

Flight passengers will be affected by UK air traffic control failures for days, the transport secretary has warned as he urged airlines to step up and fulfil their responsibilities to passengers.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mark Harper said National Air Traffic Services (Nats), which provides the air traffic control systems in the UK, had apologised for the disruption, adding: “I’d like to add my apology to that.”

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Issue with UK air traffic control system ‘identified and remedied’ but thousands still face major delays after fault – as it happened

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National air traffic services say they have fixed the issue that has caused a network-wide failure but significant flights backlog remains

Here are some photos from Heathrow airport after a network failure caused issues with UK air traffic control, leading to major delays.

The Liberal Democrats have said the prime minister should call a Cobra meeting after a technical fault hit air traffic control in the UK.

Rishi Sunak and his ministers need to get a grip on this issue urgently and hold a Cobra meeting.

Millions of holidaymakers could be facing huge disruption in the coming days due to this fault and we can’t risk this government being missing in action yet again.

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Heathrow failed to meet minimum accessibility standards, CAA report finds

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Airport only one to be rated as ‘poor’ and ‘needs improvement’ over all four quarters in year to March

Heathrow failed to meet the minimum accessibility standards for disabled passengers in the year to March, the sector’s regulator has said.

The airport was the only one in the UK to be rated as “poor” and “needs improvement” by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) over all four quarters in the period, according to the report.

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UK airports say they can reach net zero and still expand. Is it just pie in the sky?

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Despite the Climate Change Committee’s warnings to stop growing capacity, Gatwick is gearing up for another try at a second runway

So what bit of “no new airport capacity” did airports not understand? The Climate Change Committee (CCC) spelled it out again on Wednesday: flying accounted for 7% of UK carbon emissions last year, the trend is upwards, and more airport capacity is “incompatible” with national net zero targets.

Of course, they’ve said it before: but as the committee noted in its 2023 progress report, airports have since have been racing to expand. This time, hammering it home, the CCC says that no expansion at all should go ahead until the government sorts out a proper way to manage it.

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Travellers faced long queues at major UK airports after electronic passport gates failed

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Hours-long delays were reported as IT problems also caused disruption on Dover-Calais ferries

Passengers arriving at major airports in the UK at the start of the bank holiday weekend faced long delays after problems with electronic passport gates.

Travellers expressed their anger on social media over queues of several hours at a number of airports including Heathrow and Gatwick as arrivals had their passports checked by hand instead of the automated machines.

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