Gatwick Airport: Controlled explosions carried out

[BCC News] Controlled explosions have been carried out on a van in Gatwick Airport‘s North Terminal car park.

Suspicions were raised about the Renault van as it entered one of Gatwick Airport’s car parks. Picture: Wikipedia.com

Sussex Police said a bomb disposal unit was called after suspicions were raised about a Renault van as it entered the car park at 14:40 BST.

Officers were unable to locate the driver or see inside the van. Police said the bomb disposal unit carried out the controlled explosions and there was no suggestion of “any other threats to the airport”.

Eyewitnesses reported an increase in armed police at the airport and the presence of a bomb disposal robot.

Insp Gary Medland, from Gatwick Police, said: “We are aware that this is likely to cause significant disruption to people arriving or departing North Terminal by car, especially at this time of day.

“However, it is important that we establish whether this vehicle poses any threat and the cordon has been put in place for the safety of everyone visiting and working at the airport.

“There is no suggestion that there are any other threats to the airport and both police and security staff are actively checking all areas.”

They are now looking for two men who entered the car park in the untaxed, uninsured and unregistered van. The men were seen to push up a barrier to gain access to the car park before leaving the van on the ground floor.

Gatwick Airport said the incident has not affected any incoming or outgoing flights.

Read the original story at BBC News…..

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BBC News
1st May, 2013

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Vortex from plane landing at Heathrow rips off roof: BBC News

[BBC News] Holes were ripped into the roof of a woman’s house after an aircraft landing at Heathrow created a vortex.

BAA has repaired the damage to the house. Photo: Wikipedia

The sudden current of air was powerful enough to blow tiles and masonry from the home of Patricia Hills in Old Windsor, Berkshire.

BAA, which operates Heathrow Airport, says only one in 10,000 flights results in a vortex. A repair team was sent out to fix the damage at Mrs Hills’ property following the incident on Wednesday evening.

Old Windsor is under the Heathrow flight path.

Mrs Hills first knew of the damage when she heard “a large explosion”. The grandmother said: “I was in the kitchen preparing dinner at the time when I heard the noise.

“I was alarmed to step out the front door and see a large hole in the roof. ”Moments later, a neighbour came out and alerted me to another hole round the back of the house.

“It was quite a mess, it looked like a warzone and was quite upsetting.”

Firefighters arrived within moments, sealing off the area and evacuating the house in case any further debris fell from the roof. BAA Heathrow spokesperson Lizzie Bysshe said the airport funds a £15m Vortex Protection Scheme for homes under the airport’s flight path.

A team of its engineers has completed remedial repairs, reinforcing the damaged parts of the roof. Mrs Hills added: “The airport have been fantastic and came to fix the damage almost immediately.”

Read the original story at BBC News

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BBC News
22 Mar, 2013

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UK Border Force strike may cause airport delays: BBTN

[BBTN] Airports have warned of potential delays through immigration control on Wednesday (March 20) due to a strike by Border Force staff.

“Action will start with a 24-hour strike on budget day,” said the PCS. Photo: Wikipedia

Employees, who are members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, are due to go on a 24-hour strike designed to coincide with tomorrow’s budget from chancellor George Osborne.

UK Border Agency said in a statement: “Our top priority is minimising disruption to our public-facing services and our public offices will remain open for business. We apologise for any disruption to services which result from this industrial action.”

Heathrow warned that arriving passengers “may experience some delays at immigration” but said it was not changing any flight schedules.

“The Home Office has assured us it has contingency plans in place to minimise any disruption caused by the strike,” said the airport. “We are operating a normal flight schedule and we are not advising passengers to change their plans.”

PCS workers around the UK are taking industrial action in protest at proposed cuts to pay, pensions and working conditions. The union said the timing of the strike was designed “to put maximum pressure on ministers who are refusing to talk to us”.

“Action will start with a 24-hour strike on budget day,” said the PCS. “When the chancellor stands up to deliver his budget we’ll be protesting across the UK.”

Stansted said its flights would be operating as normal but added they may be some delays at passport control.

“UK Border Force has contingency plans in place and we will work with them to ensure any disruption to our passengers is kept to a minimum,” said the airport.

It was a similar message from Luton which advised incoming passengers to take a series of steps to ease any potential delays including the use of automatic e-Passport gates, having landing cards fully completed and staying in family groups.

For the latest updates on the strike from UKBA, CLICK HERE…..

Read the original story at Buying Business travel…..

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Buying Business Travel
19th Mar, 2013

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British Airways to fly Airbus A380 on Heathrow to LA route from the autumn: Mirror

[Mirror] British Airways has announced its first superjumbo Airbus A380 will fly on the celebs’ favourite Heathrow to Los Angeles service from October 15.

Tickets for the 469-passenger double decker jet are now on sale at earlybird rates. Photo: CA Aviation

Tickets for the 469-passenger double decker jet – due to be delivered in July – are now on sale at earlybird rates starting at £499 return in economy with business returns at £3,800 for two people.

Keith Williams, British Airways’ chief executive, said: “This will be a very special premiere. The A380 is a great aircraft that has been developed with huge amounts of British engineering ingenuity. London and Los Angeles are two world-leading cities, and we are proud to be the first airline to connect them with the A380.”

The second A380 route will be to Hong Kong from November 15, 2013.

Prices start from £559 return in economy.

London-based actress Gemma Arterton said: “Working in film means that I spend a lot of time travelling around the world, often to…..

Read the full story at The Mirror…..

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Mirror
5th Mar, 2013

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Stansted takeover: Manchester Airport Group pledges battle of the skies: Evening Standard

[Evening Standard] The new owners of Stansted today launched a battle of the skies as they vowed to take passengers from Heathrow and Gatwick after competing the £1.5bn purchase of the Essex airport.

Manchester Group promises flights to 40 new long-haul destinations including the US, Caribbean and the Middle East. Photo: Wikipedia

They promised to take the airport, traditionally a stronghold of budget airlines, into the premier league with flights to 40 new long-haul destinations including the US, Caribbean and the Middle East.

Owners Manchester Airport Group (MAG) pledged to double annual passenger numbers 35 million, build new stands for the A380 superjumbos and spend £40m on new shops.

But MAG insisted there were no imminent plans to build another runway at the Essex airport – even though it is being considered by mayor Boris Johnson as a site for a “super-airport” to solve the southeast’s aviation capacity crisis.

Charlie Cornish, chief executive of Manchester Airport Group (MAG) said: “If we get the right level of customer experience and the right product, which is the right airlines flying the right planes at the right price, we will start to move volume around London. Some will always go to Heathrow and Gatwick but if it’s a strong product we hope to take volume not just from the north but the south” Mr Cornish said.

MAG calculates that 50 million people live within two hours’ drive of the Essex airport.

MAG purchased Stansted after Heathrow owner BAA was forced by the regulator to sell up to create more competition in the market.

The acquisition by MAG, which also own East Midlands and Bournemouth, includes a 35 per cent stake for…..

Read the full story at The Evening Standard…..

 

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Evening Standard
Mar 1st, 2013

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Virgin Atlantic unveils UK airline services: BBC News

[BBC News] Virgin Atlantic has unveiled details of its UK domestic service, including that the operation is called Little Red.

Sir Richard promised that Little Red will have a “rock and roll spirit” Photo: Wikipedia

t will launch on 31 March in Manchester, 5 April in Edinburgh and 9 April in Aberdeen, providing a total of 26 daily services to Heathrow airport.

Virgin won key take-off and landing slots at Heathrow after the struggling carrier Bmi was taken over by British Airways’ parent company IAG.

Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson said Little Red will go head-on with BA.

BA operates around 52 daily flights between Heathrow and Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. BA also runs services to Scotland from Gatwick and London City airports.

Virgin Atlantic hopes that Little Red, which will use Heathrow Terminal 1, will help feed traffic onto its international service operating from Terminal 3.

Sir Richard said on Friday that Little Red will “go head-to-head with BA to provide domestic flights that deliver Virgin Atlantic’s rock and roll spirit as well as real value for money.”

Read the original story at BBC News…..

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BBC News
1st Mar, 2013

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Etihad buys Heathrow slots from Jet Airways for $70 million: Economic Times

[Economic Times] MUMBAI: In what is seen as a step towards closing its proposed investment plans in Jet Airways, Etihad Airways on Wednesday said it has paid $70 million to buy three slots of the Naresh Goyal-promoted airline at Heathrow airport in London.

Etihad, which is in talks with Jet on possibly taking a stake in the firm, said discussions about further investment were continuing. Picture: Wikipedia

“Etihad Airways can confirm that it has concluded a transaction with Jet to purchase Jet’s three pairs of Heathrow slots for $70 million. The purchase is part of a sale and lease back agreement signed yesterday,” Etihad said in a statement.

The statement further said Jet will continue to operate flights to London utilising these slots.

The deal further strengthens the existing commercial relationship between the two airlines, which came into effect in July 2008, making provision for code-sharing, Etihad said.

On the ongoing stake sale talks between the two, Etihad said they continue to progress with discussions about further investment in Jet.

However, on the 24 per cent proposed stake sale toEtihad, Jet sources said, Jet has reportedly agreed to cede more management control, including more board positions to Etihad. However, this could not be officially verified with either Jet or Etihad officials.

This is to enable sealing the deal that has of late hit some air pockets with the UAE-based airline saying that it wanted to re-look at its investment plan in Jet……

Read the full story at The Economic Times of India…..

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Economic Times
27th Feb, 2013

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Heathrow trials biometric self-boarding: Biometricupdate.com

[Biometricupdate.com] Terminal 1 passengers at London’s Heathrowairport are being invited to take part in a two-month ‘self-boarding’ trial in partnership with South African Airways.

“We are working in partnership with our airlines to trial this technology….. ” Ian Hanson, Heathrow’s Terminal 1 Director said. Photo: Geograph,org

Using these self-boarding gates, passengers pass through an automatic electronic barrier which takes an infra-red scan of their face. This information is checked against the biometric data that was taken at the check-in stage. If the data matches, the barrier opens and the passenger can pass through and board their flight.

According to a statement from the airport, this now means that a passenger’s identity needs to be checked by airline staff only once in the entire departure process.

“We are working in partnership with our airlines to trial this technology which should help make our passengers’ journeys smoother and simpler. Since its introduction we have had positive feedback from both airlines and passengers,” Ian Hanson, Heathrow’s Terminal 1 director said.

Reported in BiometricUpdate.com, similar self-service gates at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam have by now processed over one million passengers.

The gates at the Schiphol airport were made by Vision-Box, a Portuguese company specializing in automated border control systems and have also recently installed self-service gates at Riga International in Latvia.

Likewise, the Gardermoen Airport in Oslo, Norway, is allowing passengers to check themselves through the gates using a biometric EasyPASS gate system.

Read the original story at Biometricupdate.com…..

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Biometricupdate.com
26th Feb, 2013

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Brazilian carrier TAM to offer mobile check-in for Heathrow: Travolution

[Travolution] Mobile check-in is being made available by Brazilian carrier TAM Airlines on flights from Heathrow.

The service is available for both internet-enabled phones and tablet devices. Photo: Wikipedia 

Passengers can check in remotely between 72 hours and up to two hours before the scheduled flight departure time.

Electronic boarding passes are sent by email or text message or can be saved directly on to the mobile phone or tablet through an application called Passbook which has been developed to store and view boarding passes of different airlines. This is available for iPhone, iPad and Android platforms.

Code scanning is carried out at the airport directly through the device’s screen. The mobile boarding pass is valid at baggage drop locations, document checkpoints, tax-free shops and at aircraft boarding.

More than one person can be checked in at the same time, as long as all passengers in the group have the same reservation code.

Read the original story at Travolution.co.uk…..

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Travolution
26th Feb, 2013

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Heathrow profit rises on airline tariffs: Reuters

[Reuters] Heathrow Ltd, the British airport operator formerly known as BAA, posted a strong rise in full year profit, largely driven by an increase in the fees it charges airlines.

The group also last week unveiled a 3 billion pounds five-year investment plan, which could see passengers facing a rise in ticket prices. Photo: Wikipedia

Ferrovial‘s Heathrow on Monday said its 2012 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 11.6 percent to 1.26 billion pounds on revenues 2.46 billion pounds.

The operator has increased airport tariffs by an average of 12.5 percent since April 2011.

The company said passenger traffic at London’s Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, rose 0.9 percent to 70 million during the year, while traffic at London Stansted fell 3.2 percent to 17.5 million.

The group last week unveiled a 3 billion pounds five-year investment plan, which could see passengers facing a rise in ticket prices.

Read the original story at Reuters…..

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Reuters
Reporting by Rhys Jones, Editing by Brenda Goh
21st Feb, 2013

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