The failure of Terminal 5 @ Heathrow Airport

[timetraveller]

Over the recents days we have seen on the news about the numerous cancellations of Fights lost baggage .. etc etc etc etc ..

IMO the terminal wasn't put under strict test conditions long enough so any flaws could be indentified and sorted .. like any Newly built ship / Aircraft .. before it was made Operational and ready for use .

Hence the serious amount of flaws .. and BA left with a red face and other Competitors laughin at them

[szr]

You've got to admit, though; T5 didn't just fail on opening day, but failed in spectacular fashion! First the anti-3rd Runway protestors flooding the terminal in their red shirts, then the baggage debacle and canceled flights, broken escalators and television reporters getting trapped in elevators... Made for quite the spectacle! :) I can't imagine the cringing that must have been going on at BAA. :p The whole episode could have been its own sitcom.

[Kampfbaer]

It´s amazing that the baggage problem is still not sorted out!

Someone f*cked up big time on this.

I always liked Heathrow and never had any bigger delays or other problems there, but maybe I was just lucky.

Nevertheless British Airways is still my favourite carrier.

[noname]

Sounds like problems that occured in Denver International Airport last decade when it opened. Fully automated baggage system that ate and lost bags. They have it mostly straigntened out now.

[Kampfbaer]

I hope it doesn´t take a decade for the Brits to sort things out.....

[Afro-European]

It´s amazing that the baggage problem is still not sorted out!



Bagagge problem has always been a big problem for many airports. I remember last year in the summer when i was going on vacation in Quebec, i got my baggages like 1 week later.

[a_very_ex_STAB]

Well as I understand it T5 was a major construction project completed on time and on budget. The problem is a failure of management and is a strong indicator that Heathrow has reached/surpassed its capacity limits.

What London needs is a new airport to add to Heathrow not further expansion/new runways etc at Heathrow.

[Kampfbaer]

Out of curiosity, doesn´t London have a good handful of airports:

Heathrow
Gatwick
Stanstead
Luton
Cityairport

Why isn`t more traffic diverted to those alternate airports.


Well, here in Berlin our brilliant politicians are reducing the number of airports from 3 to 1.......

[a_very_ex_STAB]

Out of curiosity, doesn´t London have a good handful of airports:

Heathrow
Gatwick
Stanstead
Luton
Cityairport

Why isn`t more traffic diverted to those alternate airports.


Well, here in Berlin our brilliant politicians are reducing the number of airports from 3 to 1.......

Good question!
London City can only operate a few STOL aircraft types AFAIK and obviously because of its location there's no real potential for expansion there.

With the others I guess there are also major planning constraints/objections and problems with noise already. The idea of putting a new airport on an island in the Thames estuary seems to be the most promising but there's no way it will happen quickly.

[Vandervahn]

...
Why isn`t more traffic diverted to those alternate airports.
...

Airports are businesses of their own, and instead of sharing customers (airline flights) with other airports they are willing to operate over capacity. Same with Frankfurt, at least the Lufthansa is building up the Munich airport as a second hub on their own.

Besides, all alternatives to Heathrow have only one runway and are thus operating near the limit anyway; and most of them are a lot farther away from the city area.

Anyway, the current Terminal 5 catastrophe just shows how extremely stupid it is to give control over such projects into the hands of economists only. I read a report that no single non-critical element of that Terminal has been stress-tested.

[szr]

Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted are owned and operated by BAA but Heathrow is very much BAA's flagship airport.

Heathrow is unique among airports in that nowhere else will you find such a busy and important international hub that's as small (two runways) and operating as close to its margins. By comparison, LaGaurdia--the smallest and most comparable in size (also two runways) to Heathrow of the three major airports that service New York City--only serves domestic flights* while NYC's two international airports have 3 and 4 runways respectively.

Heathrow's chief competition as a trans-Atlantic and trans-continental hub comes from Paris-CdG and Frankfurt which both have considerably more runway capacity (4 runways a piece), hence why BAA believes it needs that 3rd runway for Heathrow's longterm viability. It's a tough situation the whole way round with no easy answers.


*LaGuardia also has some service to Canada and the Caribbean.

[Vandervahn]

As a sidenote, Frankfurt only has 2 runways and one start-only lane, not 4.

[szr]

My mistake. Frankfurt has infrastructure for 3 or 4 runways but only two are in service. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Telmar]

Out of curiosity, doesn´t London have a good handful of airports:

Heathrow
Gatwick
Stanstead
Luton
Cityairport

Why isn`t more traffic diverted to those alternate airports.


Well, here in Berlin our brilliant politicians are reducing the number of airports from 3 to 1.......

Heathrow: ideally located for access to London
Gatwick: OK by train (express) but far away
Stansted: far away like crazy
Luton: Not anywhere near London in reality
CityAirport: small planes only

The problem with London is that the airports that could be used to ease Heathrow are too far way. Heathrow is the airport all travellers look for, even when they b!tch about the services there.

I think with the open skies agreement, Continental airlines was entitiled to purchase its long denied access to Heathrow. Its over 200 million US dollars.

[rgjbloke]

These two are very informative and relevant to this issue!

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/news/article3646538.ece

http://www.notrag.org/index.php

[LEGEND]

JetBlue(operates most flights from JFK) is opening a T5 as well this summer with some super duper baggage delivery system. Lets see if that opening goes better then BAs.

[ren0312]

Heathrow: ideally located for access to London
Gatwick: OK by train (express) but far away
Stansted: far away like crazy
Luton: Not anywhere near London in reality
CityAirport: small planes only

The problem with London is that the airports that could be used to ease Heathrow are too far way. Heathrow is the airport all travellers look for, even when they b!tch about the services there.

I think with the open skies agreement, Continental airlines was entitiled to purchase its long denied access to Heathrow. Its over 200 million US dollars.

I was in Heathrow in May and I think it was quite a good airport, do not know why people seem to dislike it so much.