There we were, end of last year when all major newspapers were discussing political documents released by the National Archives where Heathrow was in headlines because erstwhile PM John Major was investigating the possibility of renaming Heathrow after Winston Churchill. So how has the news changed?
And here we are today, few months down the line discussing how passenger traffic had slumped 52% in March and expected to fall 90% this month in April 2020 as opposed to last year. Now no one is remotely interested in discussing the name change because Heathrow is fighting for its survival on a day to day basis.
Since 2009 Heathrow’s addition of Third Runway, which was proposed by the then Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon has been centre of discussion by each and every government in power until date. But today operations have suffered so much that on 6th April 2020, Heathrow reduced operations to single runway in order to cut costs and drop in demand. In coming weeks, it will operate only two passenger terminals out of five. Cargo flights with medical supplies are being given priority. However overall cargo volumes have also seen an overall reduction of 32.5% in March 2020 as per Heathrow official statistics shared with major news channels.
All major UK airlines namely British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Easy Jet etc have been massively hit due to the coronavirus pandemic and the aviation industry is saying that none of them will be able to survive without emergency financial support. BBC reported that BA boss Alex Cruz sent a memo titled “The Survival of British Airways” which said that it is grounding flights “like never before”. The billionaire Virgin Atlantic boss Sir Richard Branson has offered his luxury Caribbean island as collateral to bail out the struggling airlines. If airlines suffer these major losses with its entire fleet on ground, and with no definitive time frame in sight for passenger travel getting back to normal, then future of Heathrow also hangs in a limbo.
The aviation industry will face the biggest ripple effect of economy even after lockdowns in various countries are over. As businesses are facing losses, wages will be cut and unemployment is set to rise, leaving people with very little or no money to plan holidays. Corporate travel budgets will also be slashed and reduced to minimum. All this will hit the aviation industry further and Heathrow will have to keep looking at ways to cut costs.
Yet silently, standing tall Heathrow continues to play the vital role in fighting against this pandemic. It is still open as thousands of stranded British people are arriving back home on various airlines around the world. British High commission is also arranging charter flights to bring its citizens backs from various destinations around the world. It continues to reunite families and welcome citizens back. NHS has been facing shortage of vital medicines and PPE as they were not prepared for a pandemic of such vital scale. Medical supplies continue to arrive on a regular basis to help our NHS and keyworkers perform their duty under such stressful circumstances. As people continue to stay at home under lockdown, more food and essential supplies are flown in from various countries so that there is no shortage in any major supermarket and local grocery shops.
It is often said that ‘Not all superheroes wear Capes’, Heathrow seems to be just that superhero of this moment. Times will change and News will again change – Around Heathrow. Lets just wait and watch!
