Heathrow: Boarding starts at 8:40. It may take up to fifteen minutes to walk to your gate. "Please allow enough time to reach your gate." It's 8:44. We're still not telling you what your gate is. May be the famous British humor.

In seriousness, I don't know any airport that announces gates this late. Is this some deal with the shops to keep people around the central concourse?

#lhr #airports #heathrow

Photo of the Day 28th May 2026.

https://mancavgeek.co.uk/2026/05/28/photo-of-the-day-28th-may-2026/

#İngiltere Meteoroloji Ofisi’nin açıkladığı verilere göre Londra’daki #Heathrow ve Kew Gardens istasyonlarında sıcaklık 35,1 dereceye ulaşarak ülke tarihindeki en #sıcak Mayıs günü rekoru ikinci gün üst üste yenilendi #SonDakika

https://cevrehatti.com/birlesik-krallikta-mayis-sicaklik-rekoru-ikinci-kez-kirildi/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

'Throw Thursday 3 21st May 2026.

D-BMTM, Canadair Challanger CL-600S, MTM Aviation, decelerating hard after landing on Runway 28 Left at London Heathrow, 18th March 1993.

#London #Heathrow #LHR #EGLL #Runway28Left #Canadair #Challanger #CL600 #MTMAviation #ThrowThursday
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

'Throw Thursday 2 21st May 2026.

G-JMAC, British Aerospace Jetstream 4100, British Aerospace, at London Heathrow, 30th October 1994.
This aircraft is now preserved by the Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group, round the back of the Crowne Plaza hotel at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

#London #Heathrow #LHR #EGLL #BritishAerospace #Jetstream #J41 #BAE #ThrowThursday
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

'Throw Thursday 21st May 2026.

B-2727, Boeing 787-8 DreamLiner, China Southern Airlines, on final approach to Runway 09 Left at London Heathrow, as seen from Stanwell Moor Road, 18th March 2016.

#London #Heathrow #LHR #EGLL #Runway09Left #StanwellMoorRoad #Boeing #B787 #DreamLiner #ChinaSouthern #OnThisDay
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

#Transport for #London Freedom of Information release:

✈️ #TfL has released a February 2026 policy paper on Heathrow expansion following a Freedom of Information request. The document sets out TfL and the Mayor of London’s concerns over the environmental and transport impacts of a proposed third runway at #Heathrow. It warns expansion could increase aircraft movements by 58 per cent and add more than 40,000 daily vehicle trips unless major public transport investment is secured. The paper highlights risks to carbon targets, air quality, noise levels and road congestion, while noting changes since the original Airports National Policy Statement in 2018, including the Elizabeth line, #ULEZ expansion and tighter climate obligations. TfL says any revised policy must include binding environmental conditions, stronger public transport targets and safeguards to prevent worsening pollution and congestion.

Heathrow’s Third Runway – run away now?

I’ve just taken a butcher’s at the plans for a third runway at Heathrow, which is a news story that has been rumbling away in the background for years and years. The third runway is the one on the left in the graphic above, with – pay close attention – the M25 running underneath it.

What prompted me to look was an article in The Sunday Times (that’s an Apple News+ link, sorry) about some billionaire’s plan to take over the scheme and get a shorter runway built more quickly. This is because the existing plan – approved by this fucking government – involves the re-routing of the M25.

Presumably a shorter runway would be used by smaller planes question mark.

I’m very late to this party, obviously. I drive around the M25 quite often (not as often as people who do it every day, obvs), and 90% of the time, I choose the Dartford crossing way, because (especially since the introduction of numberplate recognition) as painful as it is, it is not as painful as driving past both Heathrow and Gatwick. That stretch of road between the M3 and the M40 is best avoided.

In a sane universe, this wouldn’t be a discussion. The bleating about economic growth in connection with air travel just makes you tear your hair out. We should be doing less of this. As I was pondering Peak Oil the other day, I didn’t even mention air travel, though it was in the back of my mind. This third runway is supposed to be opening by 2035, and you think, how is this even something people are talking about? How will they still be pulling oil out of the ground to fuel an expansion in the use of planes in 2035?

I wonder, too, how many people are aware that these third runway plans involve sinking that awful stretch of the M25 into a tunnel? So that planes can come in to land/take off over the top of it. And this billionaire who seems to be muscling his way in (why? because money) is suggesting just building the shorter runway so that the M25 can stay where/how it is. Can you imagine? That would presumably mean planes coming in (or taking off, unsure of direction) at incredibly low altitudes above all that usually stationary traffic. Visions of Kegworth.

Now, I happen to have been following the Black Cat Roundabout scheme quite closely. Here’s what the scheme is supposed to look like when finished:

So in the middle, left to right, is the A421, which instead of coming to a halt at the traffic lights on the old roundabout, is going to fly over the top, a non-stop dual carriageway all the way to Cambridge and the M11. It’ll be a more-or-less non-stop link between J13 of the M1 and J13 of the M11 at Madingley.

Running top to bottom is the A1, Great North Road, which instead of coming to a halt at the Black Cat traffic lights will be sunk beneath the roundabout, which will pass over the top of it.

So this scheme turns out to be fairly similar to the propsal of sinking the M25 underneath Heathrow’s 3rd runway.

Here’s what the Black Cat scheme looked like a couple of days ago, in the latest Wandering Northerner drone-shot video:

This is about a year in to the construction, by the way. Maybe more? And about another year to go. So now I want you to imagine them doing that ↑ to the stretch of the M25 next to Heathrow, quite close to the junction with the M4. Which is described like this on the official Third Runway web site:

“Delivered offline to maintain traffic flow.”

Uh huh. Yep. That’s the sort of thing you say in a planning meeting, but a glance at the scheme and a moment’s thought is enough to make me very sceptical. There is no “delivered offline” when it comes to the M25. Also, you’re speaking metaphorically, and your metaphor makes no fucking sense. What is offline? In this case? What is delivered? And most expecially, in this mixed metaphor: what traffic flow? Because you look at that Black Cat scheme and you see the tiny tiny lorriess which are actually huge lorries, and the vast quantities of topsoil being moved, and the substrate gravel being delivered, and the rebar being pounded into the ground, and the concrete being poured, and the steel bridge beams, and the massive engineering going on, and the excavation, the culverts, the drainage…

Like hell is this going to be delivered offline to maintain traffic flow.

So a shorter runway? And we’ll deal with the air disaster when it happens, I guess.

On This Day 15th May 1993 2.

HZ-KA7, British Aircraft Corporation 1-11-492GM, Sheikh Kamal Adham, being towed in front of the terraces on top of The Queens Building at London Heathrow, 15th May 1993.

#London #Heathrow #LHR #EGLL #QueensBuilding #BritishAircraftCorporation #BAC111 #SheikhKamalAdham #OnThisDay
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Photo of the Day 15th May 2026.

https://mancavgeek.co.uk/2026/05/15/photo-of-the-day-15th-may-2026/