Forum Topic

News from Heathrow..

Many of you will know that Terminal 4 is closed for the foreseeable future and that Terminal 3 is closed for the moment too.So 2 out of 5 inactive.Some 25,000 staff at Heathrow are in line for losing their jobs soon...from Pilots to lower grades.. Of those British Airways are apparently to shed 12,000 jobs. Not very pleasant at all.The news affecting Chiswickians was that one runway was to be closed for repairs and maintenance to give us some noise relief. It didn't last very long ..just 2 or 3 days...and now flights are using both runways again...and MANY flights too. Experts here will seek to find out what's happening...but I'm told flights are up by 30% in recent weeks.A larger variety of Chinese Airlines are flying in and out loaded  with masks and other imports. Apparently bosses at T5 are not too happy to be sharing T5 with this new array of Chinese Airlines.Some aircraft are apparently taking off with more crew on board than passengers... and my friend tells me that one flight took off with none!Qutar own a share of Heathrow and also a share of British Airways... and they have been swopping suppliers in certain areas to save money!The idea of a Third Runway must be on hold.But it's the damage to the local economy which will be alarming in the next month or two.Sorry it's a bit longwinded but it's on my  mind!

Jim Lawes ● 2276d12 Comments

They were leaving every 2 minutes earlier this evening.

Janice Evans ● 2276d

This evening's arrivals seemed back to 'normal'. Unfortunately. Can no longer hear birdsong.

Ken Munn ● 2276d

Up until now its often been a choice between birdsongand  jobs. But possibly not even that any longer.A lot of displaced workers see Covid being used as a smokescreen for long planned employment and wagerestructuring.Now Walsh hasn't explicitly denied that. What he'sactually said is that demand is never going to returnto former levels. Implying that adjustments will need to be made. In the past few years/ decades the point is being made repeatedly that a company's first responsibility is to its shareholders. When coupled with the old cliche that a company's biggest overhead walks on two legs the outcome is obvious.The idea that companies have any social reaponsibility to employ people, or any responsibility to society as a whole over and above PR stunts to maintain theirimage is long gone.So if BA have always had plans to cut staff and wagesfurther whenever possible in pursuit of greater profitability (assuming it works) then they're only doing what  they're charges with doing as a public  company.And Post Covid is going to see a lot of that. There's going to be no more Mr nice guy, and all the PR stunts - sponsoring this and that will also be among the first things out the window.Tesco along with the other Supermarkets are one ofthe few compnaies to do well out of Covid. And soas a gesture of thanks to their staff they've sackedall their cleaning contractors and expect their own staff to find time to clean the toilets and work areas in addition. The PR dept were fortunate enough to find some Tesco employees who thought this a great idea, natch michael adams

Michael Adams ● 2276d

Well the government knee jerk reaction on the back of Covid-19 to encourage walking and cycling and discourage car use is sterling to have the knock on effect.My son has been made redundant from a motor factors supplying cars parts to local garages.So now he joins the ranks of the unemployed, but in this new world isn’t he meant to be buying a bike and supporting local shops.The only place he will visit is a local food bank on his payout.

Bernard Allen ● 2276d

Very concerning Jim.We can see a detailed day by day report on what is and isn’t happening. What should or shouldn’t be happening. Re-training for job losses in a green economy. Ruth Cadbury is well aware of it all. airportwatch.org.uk

Rima Jones ● 2276d

No - there  was no absolutely no noise relief for Chiswick while the Southern runway was closed for resurfacing - quite the opposite as all landings were on the Northern runway all day long from 4.30 am until whenever the last arrival came in. We lost the 3pm runway switch which gave some relief. Now they have switched to night-time resurfacing work both runways are in use until 8pm when everything switches back to the Northern. I live ight underneath a flight path in Grove Park and while there are of course many less planes than usual there are still plenty of them!Info about the runway resurfacing is here.https://www.heathrow.com/company/local-community/noise/latest-local-community-and-noise-news/southern-runway-repairs

Bruce Hammal ● 2276d

You mention BA Jim, but in proportion to size Virgin Atlantic has made lots of staff redundant. 1500 cabin crew and more than a third of their pilots. Plus lots of the support staff.I know it's hot topic but LHR employs lots of people and around it. I feel for the staff there, many of them low paid, shop and restaurant staff, support etc.

Basil Finnis ● 2276d

I was surprised years to discover that so many passenger aircraft carried cargo rather than them being completely separate.  I understand that passenger numbers are down but I doubt if cargo is.

Philippa Bond ● 2275d

Philippa, the usual 777 will carry about 35 tonnes of cargo on a normal flight. The 787 with no pax can do 35+ of cargo. The flights to China, BA and Virgin, and now the Chinese carriers are just carrying cargo mainly ie PPE. The few passengers they are carrying is just to top it off. The numbers are way down still so its just cargo with a few passengers.

Basil Finnis ● 2275d

The press release announcing the half-year results from Heathrow on 29th July included :Significant passenger decline pushes Heathrow to loss - Passenger numbers were down over 96% in Q2 as global aviation came to a virtual standstill. We anticipate a gradual recovery as countries reopen borders, but that 2020 passenger volumes will be more than 60% lower than 2019. Q2 revenue fell 85% to £119 million and adjusted EBITDA turned to a loss of £93 million. We recorded an adjusted loss before tax of £471 million in the first six months of 2020.​Cargo volumes down over 30%, hit by loss of passenger flights – Cargo at the UK’s biggest port usually travels in the hold of passenger planes. Increase in cargo-only flights has not offset the loss of passenger flights to long haul markets.

Tim Henderson ● 2274d

What a pity our MP doesn't share your concern. We haven't even seen the beginning of the devastation caused by the patchy response to SARS-COV-2. No prizes for guessing what Ruth Cadbury was banging about on her appearance on Today In Parliament a couple of weeks back.Spoiler alert: it had nothing to do with the plight of her constituents who have had no government help whatsoever since lockdown nor the many who will suffer in the future.

Charlotte Kasner ● 2274d

They would have gone up more in a lot of people's estimation if they had done something to show that they were concerned about the number of people travelling that they together with the authorities were just allowing into the country without any information on coronavirus let alone temperature checking.

Philippa Bond ● 2274d