I read the article and thought it wasn’t particularly fair, or accurate towards Heathrow. some of what it said wasn’t accurate – but im just being picky, and these are my opinions.
for a start, Heathrow is not the biggest airport in the world.
also, i don’t think the ‘ultimate’ Jebel Ali set up will be ready for atleast 10 years. the Jebel Ali that is described in the article won’t be built for 2007. i would expect to see just two terminals and 1 or 2 runways built for 2007, the rest coming in phases. i don’t think there is enough traffic through Dubai yet to warrant such an airport of that size, and if all those runways and terminals are built for 2007, they would be highly underutilised as the current Dubai airport can just about cope with current traffic levels – there isn’t enough traffic for there to be a need for such a large airport to work along side an already large, and growing Dubai airport.
the article states that 6 A380s have been ordered by UK airlines, whilst 45 have been ordered by the UAE, and so therefore Dubai, and the UAE will see more A380s than Heathrow. I think that the number of A380s that each city sees will be more or less equal – Heathrow will probably see more A380 movements than any other current airport as it is the world busiest international airports and one of the most constrained – so airlines will more than likely want to fly the A380 into Heathrow in order to reduce the number of flights that they fly – 2 passenger loads on aircraft now could be put onto one A380. i could see other airlines with A380s – SIA etc eventually basing a couple of A380s at Heathrow. Emirates won’t see its full complement of 45 aircraft for quite a while.
Im not thinking about the next two years here, im thinking about the next 1-10 years.
“Would Heathrow cope if B.A had 45 0f these on order.”
i would say yes, because BA would probably replace the 747s with the A380s – ok, yes there are size differences, but only mainly in wingspan – developments at the airport – including rebuilding part of the central terminal area after t5 is completed could solve these space problems.
i don’t think Heathrow has to worry just yet – it will take a lot of time and effort to push Heathrow from first place – Dubai will have to continue its development work on the city and country itself – work to build an important international financial centre in Dubai, as London already is – part of the reason why Heathrow is what it is – the ‘contents’ of the city.
Dubai and the UAE will have to continue to attract mroe than just tourism – and in other ways than just continually buying big international corporations as it has been doing.
the country shouldn’t rely on tourism (its not, but im just saying) – its hardly the Spanish Costa del Sol or Italy – it is afterall, much a desert – i can’t see millions flocking to the country in the near future – and it seems to be attracting just the rich and famous – i haven’t heard much on offer for mr. joe blogs. the region isn’t the safest either. im going off topic…. :diablo:
as i said, just my opinions on the matter, don’t shoot me down too much 🙂
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