London Heathrow, The Death has almost arrived !!!

London !!!!!!!!!!

The place where even today, Kings and Queens still exists, but then the air travel has not gone the way it should have. Thanks to the locals !!! They can`t sleep at night if the planes keep zooming at night, so this led to a series of disasters for the aviation scenario there.

The Heathrow Airport is waiting for development for decades now, and it already functioning at a 98-100% capacity. Since they aren`t developing the airport, the traffic and the passengers are choosing the better option of flying via the Gulf, because that is reasonably cheaper and also fantastic.

I have landed at the Heathrow, and yeah, its air space is really a busy mess. Many a times the flight keep circling in the air for 30 minutes. and when you flight is taking off there is a huge queue, sometimes even 10 planes are waiting on taxiway and from the window you could actually count how many planes were lined before yours.

The vicinity does have a lot of development options and none of them seem to be advancing. It is aptly said, that, if the city or a country has to develop for infrastructure, then some locals have to face hardships.

Considering the fact that, the development isn`t a possible option even in the next decade, they should allow flights to operate during the night which may allow opportunity for more passengers and flights. Frankfurt Airport on the other hand has 4 runways and ample more space for future terminals and runways. So, a lot of share of Heathrow has also transferred there.

A lot of airlines have started flying the A380 to LHR because, that way more people can be commuted, but at this point, there is a need for more landing and take off spots needed. Ironically, the case of LHR also has a side-effect, it seems British Airways may no longer be competitive in the next 4-5 years.

Let`s see if the Queen cares enough and does something about it.

O`Hare Airport: Amazing Come Back

I have been tracking almost all the major airports from all continents. Going by the statistics, I may have claimed that Dubai airport, or even the Frankfurt airport are simply amazing, but there is this one airport which is always going to hold a sweet spot on my lists, and it is none other than the Chicago`s O`Hare airport, which is one the busiest airport in the world and at one point it the all time busiest airport too, amazing. This airport is soo soo busy that things get absolutely insane. Literally on any given day, almost 70% of the flights are operating behind schedule. Additionally, this airport is one of the few airports which is located within the heart of the city, i.e. within the municipal limits.

It used to be perhaps the only airport in the world which had 3 sets of parallel runways pointing in different directions, giving it an unthinkable advantage, meaning, planes could take-off and land despite high winds or bad weather in the opposite direction literally. Certainly a favorite among airlines and passenger due to the connectivity and options, but over the years it has been too crowded and this lead to a lot of delays. Alongside is the layout plan of the O`Hare airport in the year 2001.

O`Hare runways were intersecting (Hail old planning) so not more than 3 runways could be used in any configuration, the current expansion rates demand non intersecting sets of runways, which could operate independently. The American Aviation Ministry was quick to recognize this and made a remarkable plan to alter the runways and convert them to an all parallel layout.

This meant, tons of changes to be made and billions of dollars of investment. But the results have been fabulous. Now, the O`Hare has a total of 8 runways, EIGHT parallel runways !!! (which is more than all operational runways in all the airports of Indian metro cities, haha). 6 runways are parallel are now parallel to each other, and the rest 2 are parallel in another direction. 

Alongside is the image of modern day O`Hare airport`s layout. The new layout allows independent operations of the runways. Simultaneously take-offs and landing, so no more delays. Good for the airlines and a win for passengers indeed. Now all of a sudden there are no flight delays and passengers are surprised too.

In previous posts, I have mentioned innumerable times that the Al Maktoum International Airport is slated to be the busiest airport of the future, but I feel that with these development at the O`Hare, a lot of new slots are generated for airlines and this will invite new routes and added frequencies to existing routes. The highest number of passengers this airport has managed is 76 million annually, but now with availability of new slots, and added infrastructure, this airport will be able to manage a cool 150 million.

Earlier only 3 runways could be used at any given time, but now, 6 can be used, so the capacity multiplies and the O`Hare may see better days ahead. Clearly, despite being one of the oldest airports, it is still ahead of its time even today...


Photo courtesy: Wikipedia.

Emirates Receives Its 50th A380 Jumbo

Emirates received its 50th A380 today, and still continues to be the undisputed leader with the highest A380s in its fleet.

With this addition, this newest A380 aircraft will be taken for operations by August. It is estimated that by late 2017, there would be a total of 90 A380s in the Emirates fleet in operation. Currently 27 airports are being served with the A380 by Emirates alone. By the end of this fiscal year, the number of destinations will rise to 33 after the gradual addition of Kuwait, Mumbai(YES our MUMBAI !!!), Frankfurt, Dallas, San Francisco and Houston.

With 50 A380s already delivered to Emirates, deliveries are still pending for an additional 90. And no surprises that in case Airbus chooses to offer the A380-NEO(New Engine Option), which Emirates is asking for, who knows, it is quite likely that Emirates may add more of the double deckers to their fleet.

Literally, the A380s of the Emirates fly from one corner of the world to another, Los Angeles in one end, to Auckland in the other end.


Image Courtesy of bhmpics.com