Feature: Airline Update
will provide, other airlines are pushing ahead with their A380 operations.
Malaysia Airlines, for example, has launched its first Super Jumbo flight from Kuala Lumpur into London Heathrow. It holds 494 passengers, the 66 in Business offered fully-flat seats, a pre- ordered meal service, and the latest in-flight entertainment system.
Singapore Airlines is to further enhance its long-running operations in October, when it will introduce its fourth daily flight from Singapore into London Heathrow. This, however, will be flown by a Boeing 777, whereas the existing trio are on the A380.
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways will be the launch customer to inaugurate Dreamliner services
Pictured: Above right: Kazakhstan's national carrier, Air Astana; The UK Airport Debate
London Mayor Boris Johnson has attracted much criticism for his plan to build a new London airport in the Thames Estuary, known as Boris Island. But the idea is not new. Capacity at both Heathrow and Gatwick has been a Government concern for more than 60 years, and in the late Sixties the Roskill Commission was set up to review no fewer than 78 sites for a third London gateway. First choice was Cublington,
Buckinghamshire, but to the relief of the good folk of the Vale of Aylesbury, this was abandoned in favour of Maplin Sands in the Thames Estuary.
The development was given the green light in 1973 – and shelved 12 months later on the grounds of cost and a reappraisal of passenger projections that suggested there would be sufficient capacity at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton, together with regional airports, until 1990.
Since when, the building of a new London airport has been the subject of political ping- pong. In the Nineties, it was proposed to build an airport on an artificial island north east of the Isle of Sheppey. This was put on the back burner – only to re-emerge in 2002, when the Government identified Cliffe, on the Hoo Peninsula in North Kent, as the leading
contender among potential sites for a new London airport.
True to form, the project was ditched the following year because the costs of a coastal site were deemed too high and there was a risk the airport would not be well used. But the idea of a gateway to London on the Thames did not die, and in 2008, Boris Johnson began to lead studies into the feasibility of an airport in the Shivering Sands area near Whitstable. As part of an integrated infrastructure development known as the Thames Hub, this would be built on a platform straddling the land and sea off the Isle of Grain.
It would have four runways, be capable of handling 150 million passengers a year, and be connected to the capital by high-speed rail, with a journey time of 20 minutes. Supporters of the scheme point to many advantages: flights would take off and land over water, rather than urban areas, allowing the airport to be used 24 hours a day; a high- speed rail link to London would encourage passengers to use public transport; and the airport would reassert London’s geographical advantage as the stop-off point between North America and Asia, currently under threat from the emergence of global hubs such as Dubai. Objectors to the scheme raise a great number of issues, from the cost of infrastructure and the upheaval of moving London’s main airport to a new location, to the risk of bird strikes and an increased number of flights creating more greenhouse gases.
The Estuary airport would cost £50 billion, including transport connections, and the money would be difficult to raise, according to Deutsche Bank, while the new gateway would only be viable if Heathrow was closed. All of which suggests that a new London airport on the Thames Estuary is just as far from being built as it was when Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne.
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into the UK. With 30 firm orders, the airline will introduce the B787 on the Doha to London route later in 2012.
Ethiopian Airlines, meanwhile, took delivery of its first B787 in August with details of the routes it will serve still to be announced. The aircraft features 24 Cloud Nine Business seats and 245 seats in Economy.
In September, United Airlines received the first of 50 Dreamliners it has ordered, with plans to launch five into service this year as deliveries continue. These will include 36 fully-flat seats in BusinessFirst and 72 more conventional seats in EconomyPlus, together with user-friendly amenities such as an all-new entertainment system.
Elsewhere, the ongoing enhancement of the Business product continues apace despite the
airlines’ financial constraints. The launch of HongKong Airlines all-club-class flights from Gatwick to its Asian base in March this year was a bold move few are likely to follow, and the service was axed after just six months. Access from the key business markets of Asia
Foster and partners
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