London Heathrow T5

[Luke Chittock]

Howdy all

Sorry... bit late posting this one:

Media Release


RELOCATION, RELOCATION, RELOCATION

26 March 2008: The biggest airport move in UK aviation history takes place this week as British Airways undertakes the unprecedented logistical challenge of relocating more than 1,000 ground vehicles, aircraft and items of support equipment to its new home at Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

Between 11pm on March 26 and 4am on March 27, the airline has to move most of its Heathrow equipment up to three miles from one end of the airfield to the other without disturbing the flight schedule of the world’s busiest international airport.

Heathrow’s southern runway will be closed for these five hours, while a convoy of more than 1,000 vehicles and pieces of equipment are driven from Terminals 1 and 4 to Terminal 5.

The convoy moving up to Terminal 5 includes:
27 shorthaul aircraft
360 baggage trailers (help to move bags from baggage hall to aircraft side)
95 baggage tugs (pull the baggage trailers from baggage hall to aircraft side)
106 baggage elevators and conveyors (help to load bags from aircraft side into the hold)
240 cargo containers
122 cars and vans
16 ground power units
22 sets of aircraft steps
10 toilet servicing units

The convoy will be moved by a team of 250 staff including up to 150 volunteers, especially trained for the overnight move.

Such a time-limited move of this magnitude has never taken place before at any UK airport, let alone at the country’s global hub.

More than 2,500 Heathrow based customer service and baggage staff will also overnight change the terminal they work in. A further 3,000 staff will move from Terminal 4 into Terminal 5 on April 30.

Up to 13,000 Heathrow based cabin crew and 2,800 pilots will move into a new crew reporting centre within Terminal 5 from May 1.

British Airways’ planners are consulting regular updates of wind and weather forecasts and reports from air traffic controllers so they can implement contingency arrangements to attempt to deal with every type of potential last-minute disruption.

Willie Walsh, British Airways’ chief executive, said: “This is an historic move for this airline and for UK aviation. Nothing on this scale has been attempted before.

“Everyone knows the exceptional congestion that Heathrow endures as the world’s busiest international airport. But we are relocating to a completely new terminal without requiring any kind of shutdown by the airport authorities.

“Heathrow will be operating at full capacity on March 26 from four terminals and again at full capacity on March 27 from five terminals. Putting up the ‘closed for business’ sign is not an option. This is a massive logistical exercise, which is without parallel.”

All the aircraft and ground equipment will be moved initially from their normal overnight positions at Terminals 1 and 4 to nearby holding areas. When air traffic controllers give the go-ahead they will then be moved along the southern runway’s taxiways, to a second holding point close to Terminal 5.

From there, the equipment will be reallocated individually to the correct part of the Terminal 5 campus, which covers the size of Hyde Park.


Ends


Notes to editors:

1. The first arrival at Terminal 5 will be BA026 from Hong Kong at 4.50am. The first departure will be BA302 to Paris at 6.20am. A further 380 flights will then depart or arrive from the terminal during its first day of operations.

2. A second phase of British Airways’ move will take place between 11pm Tuesday April 29 and 4am Wednesday April 30, when a further 500 pieces of ground equipment and 120 flights will be moved and begin to operate to and from Terminal 5.

3. Photographs of the equipment and maps of Heathrow showing how the convoy will move from Terminals 1 and 4 to Terminal 5 are available.

[Tim C]

Thanks Luke some good info there. Quite a few of us saw the Doco on the tv the other night on the launch of T5. It looks great.

Cheers

[Montague S]

excellent info there, Luke...I see the first flight using the terminal is BA from Hong Kong.

[Luke Chittock]

G'day Montague et al

Originally Posted by Montague S

excellent info there, Luke...I see the first flight using the terminal is BA from Hong Kong.

Amazing huh? And i'm sure you will be pleased to know that it actually arrived 1min early... and the BA302 PAR bound flight departed bang on time.

Regards

Luke/PER

[Montague S]

Originally Posted by Luke Chittock

G'day Montague et al



Amazing huh? And i'm sure you will be pleased to know that it actually arrived 1min early... and the BA302 PAR bound flight departed bang on time.

Regards

Luke/PER

G-BNLH?

[Andrew P]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7317352.stm

Flights from Heathrow's new £4.3bn Terminal 5 are departing with hand baggage only after luggage check-in was suspended due to a processing backlog.

sounds a real stuff-up

Banjo

[David Ramsay]

Flights from Heathrow's new £4.3bn Terminal 5 are departing with hand baggage only

So nothing has changed at Heathrow.

[NickN]

From this mornings Daily Telegraph site....

By Avril Ormsby

March 28, 2008 08:48am

THE opening of London Heathrow Airport's $9.4 billion Terminal 5 has ended in chaos, with its new baggage handling system suspended and dozens of flights cancelled.

The state-of-the-art baggage system is meant to help smooth the journeys of millions of passengers travelling through the world's busiest international air gateway.

But the first day saw at least 33 short-haul flights cancelled and enraged passengers suffering hours of delays because of a backlog caused by technical problems.

Passengers wanting to fly overnight were told they would be able to board if they were taking only hand luggage on the flight.

British Airways (BA), which has its new home at T5, blamed the disruption on "teething problems".

It apologised, saying customers who had not checked-in could travel with hand baggage only, re-book or receive a refund.

Baggage handling was only one of a series of problems facing passengers. Others included car parking troubles, staff security screening and general confusion over the unfamiliar layout.

"This is not unexpected following one of the most complex and largest airport moves in history," BA said.

About 97 per cent of its flights went ahead as normal, it said.

Journalist Mark Jones was left sitting on a plane for two hours.

"At one point the luggage was returned to the terminal because the system said our flight had already departed," he said.

Tight security was in place in expectation of demonstrations by green protesters against the expansion of the airport.

In the event, about 200 eco-demonstrators appeared in the main entrance wearing Stop Airport Expansion T-shirts.

Authorities had been on heightened alert after a series of security breaches at Heathrow.

On the eve of the Queen formally opening the terminal this month, a man ran onto a runway, while in February, protesters broke into the airport and wrapped a banner around a plane.

The terminal is the equivalent size of about 50 soccer pitches.

The first passengers to arrive at the new terminal were from Hong Kong at 4.50am, while the first outbound plane left the airport at 6.20am bound for Paris

[David Wallace]

What was the doco, and is it on the internet to download?

[Adam Stone]

It seems to be suffering from a Terminal Illness