Heathrow Airport - Case Study Example

Heathrow Airport Name Date Heathrow airport Introduction Heathrow airport was long ago started as an airfield in 1929 in which it was later developed into a larger airfield to cater for the long distance aircraft for the military. According to Visitor London website, Heathrow international airport is one of the major international airports located in the city of London in England. It is also known as the London airport in which it was renamed in 1965 to become Heathrow airport after an existence of 19 years (Smith, 2009, p. 57). Heathrow international airport is ranked the third busiest airport in the entire world through a research carried out in 2011-2013 depicting the total number of passengers trafficking, handling of the passengers and issuance of employment to citizens both indirectly and directly (Osborne, 2013). Heathrow airport is located 23kilometres west of the central London. It is built with five terminals numbered from 1 to 5 and also available is the cargo terminal. Its runaways are arranged in 3pairs consisting of 6 runaways in a shape of hexagram as they meet at different angles (Osborne, 2013). Image showing Heathrow airport, (Osborne, 2013). Heathrow airport is largely equipped with full body scanner machines which are used on the passengers and airport to eliminate certain objects that are not allowed to board in the airplanes (Osborne, 2013). Therefore this paper seeks to provide a current state project of the Heathrow airport in England. Role plaid by Heathrow airport Heathrow airport offers different services to the entire country and also widely in the globe. It has distinct operation that facilitates service delivery ranging from the current start of the art engineered (Osborne, 2013). There are is stipulated regulations that act as a guide for all employees and esteemed customers of the airport. These regulations provide the principle rules to follow so that there can be limited error in the airport that can lead to disastrous happenings. The major five terminals allocated for passenger and a separate cargo terminal offers a wide service delivery that improves the service being offered at the Heathrow international airport. Heathrow international airport also allow different owned airport planes to arrive and send them to various destinations in the world (Osborne, 2013). Regulations Heathrow airport has been the main airport that has been regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the dominant London aviation market as to how much it will be charging for all airlines for landing in the airport (Smith, 2009, p. 54). The regulations are mainly guided by the airport coordination through a computerised system that was developed to engineer the easiest and non-sophisticated landing systems at the Heathrow international airport (Smith, 2009, p. 54). These allocated slots are done electronically offered consisted of the applicable charges for the fees which were being considered by the calculated inflation. According to Smith (2009, p.53), these electronically designs are different from the other facilities being used in the other airports thus providing a stiffer competition in which this facility favours Heathrow international airport. Despite the critics behind Heathrow airport being overcrowded and many major delays, Heathrow facilities were designed to accommodate an estimated of 55 million passengers yearly (Sherwood, 2013, p.71). The overcrowding and delays in the airport were caused by the large population gained in the airport at a rate of over 70 million passengers every year which caused it to be voted the least favourite airport destination to be. The engineered had to develop a system that will reschedule the services at the Heathrow airport to easy the congestion and delays. Two runaways at the airport were generated that were much efficient since they operated at a 98% of the capacity of airplanes (Sherwood, 2013, p.71). In order to increase the number of flights being operated at the airport, Heathrow international airport holdings had to use the two runaways in a mixed mode where both airplanes taking off and landing were allowed hence it increased the airport capacity. Heathrow airport holdings has also proposed building a new well engineered state of the third runaway which will significantly increase the traffic at the airport (Sherwood, 2013, p.71). Terminals Heathrow international airport consists of state of the art terminals that were greatly engineered to cater for all the arrivals and departures of aircraft at the airport. The airport consists of five terminals namely, terminal 1, terminal 2, terminal 3, terminal 4 and terminal 5 excluding the other cargo terminal available at the airport too (Sherwood, 2013). Terminal1- it was opened in 1968 in which it was the base of domestic British airways from the Heathrow and other long haul routes (Sturtivant, 2012). This terminal was later engineered to extend it by redesigning to allow doubling of the size available at the departure lounge creating an additional seating capacity with a retail space too. This terminal is intended to be closed once all airlines have moved to other Heathrow terminals in 2016 (Sturtivant, 2012). Terminal 2 – it was opened to all passengers recently this year on June. It is also officially known as queens terminal as it was built on the site of the queens building (Sturtivant, 2012). This terminal was designed by Luis Vidal and other architects who engineered the development of this terminal. This terminal included a car park for the passengers, a cooling station and an energy centre. This was an amazing engineering since it comprised of 17 restaurant and bars and 52 shops. This design was architected to handle 1.2 million passengers yearly (Sturtivant, 2012). Terminal 3 – it was opened as the oceanic terminal in 1961 that was engineered to handle departing flights for long haul hours (Sherwood, 2013, p. 80). It had a direct helicopter on the roof top of the building in which it was well structured engineered. Other facilities that used the engineering concepts include the adoption of the moving walkways in civil engineering concepts. According to Sherwood (2013, p.80), this resulted into efficiency and fastness of services at the Heathrow airport. These major civil and structural engineering improvements were intended to reduce traffic congestion and improve passengers experience at the Heathrow airport. Image showing terminal 3, (Sherwood, 2013, p. 80). Terminal 4 – this is the terminal that is connected to terminals 1, 2 and 3. It is situated next to the cargo terminal. This terminal was structured upgraded to accommodate 45 aircrafts that will reduce traffic congestion at the airport. Terminal 5 – opened in 2008 in which it is the highly civil structured building at the Heathrow airport (Sherwood, 2013, p. 79). It consists of a four storey building with two satellite buildings that are linked to the main terminal. It has the state of the art technology with major IT systems inventions which collapsed on the invention day but it was later rectified (Sherwood, 2013, p.79). Terminal 5 image, (Sherwood, 2013, p. 79). Cargo terminal Cargo terminal was built in 1968 which has a cargo tunnel that reconnect it to terminal 1, 2 and 3 at the Heathrow airport. This terminal is dedicated to cargo flight both landing and departing (Halpenny, 2011). Traffic and statistics results of Heathrow airport Despite Heathrow airport holdings claiming to be the busiest international airport in the world, a research conducted proved that it was in the third place according to the total traffic passengers (Sturtivant, 2012). The graph below shows the statistics data of the Heathrow international airport in relation to the passengers and movements of airplanes. A graph showing statistical data, (Sturtivant, 2012). Engineering concepts and results Heathrow international airport has genuine accredited the value and adoption of the engineering principles in building up the facilities at the airport (Halpenny, 2011). Structural engineering concepts were highly used to provide long lasting and efficient facilities at the airport. The building of steady structures that could host helicopters at the roof tops is a genuine concept of structural engineering (Halpenny, 2011). It made sure that all the building structures would resist any force ant tension too. It allows redesigning of the airport runaways and terminals. Civil engineering principles enabled the Heathrow international airport holding to come up with major developments such as the introduction of a mixed mode that helped in operating two activities at the same time both landing and taking off of airplanes at the airport (Halpenny, 2011). This engineering concept ensured there was redesigning of the terminals to ease traffic congestion at the airport. Mechanical engineering has been used to provide a skill in rectifying errors and failures that airplanes encounter. This field is applicable at the airport to check aircrafts safety to fly (Halpenny, 2011). Also applicable concept is the use of system engineering concept that is generated on wide basis to fix communication errors such as the collapse of the IT system at the Heathrow airport during the inception of terminal 5 (Halpenny, 2011). Conclusion Heathrow international airport is one of the largest airports in the world with a future possibility of expansion. Different engineering has been used upon to come up with long lasting facilities at the Heathrow airport. More so, on the future expectation, Heathrow international airport holding has written letters to the secretary seeking permission to engineer various developments such as introduction of the airtrack that will provide transport within the limited areas (Pearson, N., Larson, 2013). Heathrow airport has offered a better level in allowing all engineering concepts ranging from civil to structural engineering be applied at the fastest growing international airport. The introduction of building a Heathrow hub at the airport will boost the growth of engineering since newest models and principles are being put in place. Many passengers are therefore satisfied by the services and hospitality being offered at the airport. It was the dream comes true of the Heathrow international airport in making every journey better. References Osborne, T. J., (2013). Expanding horizons: Heathrow believes expansion will solve capacity problem. Uxbridge: London Borough of Hillingdon. Sturtivant, Y. A., Ray, G. H., (2012). Heathrow air watch: information on airport data. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Smith, Graham., (2009). Taking into the sky: the story of British Aviation. Aviation journal, 37, 52-65 Sherwood, P. H., and Philips, V. H., (2013). Heathrow: years of history. Journal of historic event, 56, 67–81. Pearson, N., Larson, E. W., and Gray, C. F., (2013). Project management in practice. McGraw hill publishers. Halpenny, D. K., Bruce, B. N., Gallop, A. S., (2011). Aviation engineering concepts. McGraw hill publishers. Visitor London website, retrieved from http://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/travel-to-london/airport/heathrow Read More