BEA/BA west base demolished

I can confirm as of 15:28 the second NE bay cross member has now been brought down. Came down with a huge bang.

Particularly as their UK Management Team are dropping like flys. At least before there was some attempt to manage the business side of things, now there doesn’t seem to be anyone managing the business or the operation. 🙁

I agree to an extent Mark. It grieves me to find myself on common ground with Ryanairs O’Leary, but I think he is spot on with his views of the BAA.:(

Alarmingly BAAs new owners seem to present no immediate prospect of a change of course and that ought to be a cause for concern for airlines and passengers alike.

Particularly as their UK Management Team are dropping like flys. At least before there was some attempt to manage the business side of things, now there doesn’t seem to be anyone managing the business or the operation. 🙁

It seems to me that with LHR-east being converted into a pax terminal in the (far?) future there is not much space left for hangars. Surely BA, BD and VS can´t be happy having only limited space at best? I am not convinced it is in the best interest of BAA to put this level of operational difficulties on its 3 main customers.

Unfortunately the operational difficulties encountered by its customers has never been one of the BAAs main concerns…I should know I was one for 20 or so years. The BAAs main concern is profitability come what may, no harm in that so long as your pursuit of it does not strangle one of your main sources such as the airlines that use your facilities. Alarmingly BAAs new owners seem to present no immediate prospect of a change of course and that ought to be a cause for concern for airlines and passengers alike. It seems more important these days to provide retail outlets in the terminals to the detriment of the day to day efficiency of terminal operation and God forbid, passenger convenience.

Great shame to see that demolition Trident Man…still just think of the retail potential…Drive thru ASDA, another branch of Caviar House etc etc Apologies for the rant and wandering off topic, but this subject really grinds my gears:mad:

It seems to me that with LHR-east being converted into a pax terminal in the (far?) future there is not much space left for hangars. Surely BA, BD and VS can´t be happy having only limited space at best? I am not convinced it is in the best interest of BAA to put this level of operational difficulties on its 3 main customers.

The Virgin and BMI hangars have only been up for about ten years! Who was resposible for allowing them to put them up there? The virgin shed is/was the only one able to take the A380 too!

Rgds Cking

Plans for the area are as follows:
BAA has plans for “Heathrow East” which is a clone of T5. When this grows beyond the initial T1/T2/Queens Bldg replacement it will put pressure on BA to vacate the Cathedral but as this is the most flexible and useful hangar on the airport the price will be high and it will need to be replaced. The Virgin hangar is likely to go first from what I can see of the development proposals.
T6 will be at Harmondsorth north of the A4 and outside the existing airport boundary if the BAA succeed in getting planning permission for the third runway. A terminal on the BA maintenance area would not help other than as a satellite of Heathrow East.

The whole place looked very sorry for itself when I flew over a few weeks ago. At least the slightly more historic buildings at East Base are still around I guess…

What’s the story???