14 JANUARY 2019

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Article from BTNews 14 JANUARY 2019

80m-passenger milestone for Heathrow

Confirming a record year in 2018, Heathrow announced last week it handled 80m passengers over the 12 months to December, 2.7% more than its previous best performance in 2017.

The London hub, where officials said growth had been boosted by the use of larger and fuller aircraft, is one of only seven airports in the world to achieve the 80m passenger milestone.

The figures were released as Heathrow launched the latest public consultation on its expansion programme, seeking views on flightpath locations and future operations for its two runways and proposed third. The consultation runs until 4 March.

The airport said it wanted to “deliver expansion responsibly”, but the details of the consultation drew controversy with The Times saying the airport was planning the biggest reorganisation of flight paths in 70 years.

This followed warnings that more than 650,000 people living in the Heathrow area would suffer “significant” noise as a result of an expanded airport, the newspaper added.

Heathrow executive director for expansion Emma Gilthorpe urged local people to participate in the consultation, saying: “Heathrow’s aim is to design a sustainable, fair and more efficient future airport while connecting the UK to global growth.

“It is crucial that our plans maximise the benefits of expansion across the country, including for the communities closest to us – and working in partnership with our neighbours is just one way of ensuring they do so.

“We are committed to delivering expansion responsibly, and we encourage everyone to have their say and take part.”

www.heathrow.com

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John Davidson, France

A heavy traveling schedule between Amman and Washington via Paris once led me to take BA regularly. (Its flight left at noontime, whereas the AF flight left at midnight, and their A320 was not adjusted for real biz class travel, unlike BA and RJ). So I accumulated a lot of BA miles, and "won" a gold card. Then those travel days ended, and so BA wrote to me to say they were downgrading me to silver or bronze or whatever. I wrote back to them to say that they could take back all the card, and because or a reason in one word: Heathrow. There was no effort by BA to fast-stream premium pax through the airport. I knew, but only by practice, how to get to the Concorde lounge without going up and down escalators and crossing the airport, on foot of course. It really made me change my appreciation of BA, and I had often been a 1st-class pax across the Atlantic. Good luck, BA, and to whoever is your new CEO. You need it. Bob Ayling didn't do much good for you. We could also think back to Lord King.


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