Saturday 30 September 2023

The T4 tunnel problem rumbles on. This tunnel is vital for the operation of T4, the extractor fan system has failed and it's therefore not safe for people to be in it. By closing the tunnel a whole lot of primarily T4 traffic has to be move around the Heathrow estate by going landside to the public road network and re-enter security check points. These check points are thus overwhelmed. Last night they thought they had fixed the fans, but unfortunately it failed a pollution check so it's still not workable. They are looking at ideas such as a one way system (it's the two way system that keeps pollutants in the tunnel) but I suspect they really need the tunnel fully back in service - work on this will continue today Saturday. In the meantime BA has cancelled some short-haul catering to reduce the workload on control points, and it's having an impact on other ground operations - obviously any passenger or bag transfers between T4 and T5/T3 but also availability of ground staff on the apron. There's a system wide telco at 10 am about this so we may hear more this morning.

Today's short notice cancellations:

BA866 BUD
BA874 BUD
BA986 BER
BA374 TLS
BA512 PMI
BA494 PMI
BA654 CFU
BA139 BOM
BA360 LYS
BA456 MAD

Leaving 308 departures from LHR today. There are a lot more cancellations today on other airlines - some are the USA carriers with problems on the Eastern Seaboard in terms of weather, BA doesn't look so badly affected on that one, some delays, though there is a travel waiver in force for those who wish to move travel to next week.