[optormtix]

Relax? Oh, I see. I'm childish, right.. how dare you insult me. It sems to me that its now a crime to stand up for NYC? What are you, a lame NYer who sits on the sidelines content to endure this disgusting booterism and snobish behavior spewing from the keyboards of Nick Taylor and Newcastle Kid?

I'm sorry, but I do not like to see disgusting booterism and London centric remarks over and over again, as infinitum. I like London very much and the English and I'm impressed with their transport infrastructure and new developments, but I abhor snobbism. I would probably say the same to a NYer who was talking to the Londoners in a similar manner on a London forum. Didn't you see me defend T5 against Greg earlier? Its not as if I'm anti-English at all. In fact I praised the building in comparison to our own terminal.

However Mr. Taylor constantly acts in an arrogant way, admit it. He never ever says anything positive about NY while promoting London as if he's some kind of tourist board worker, or if its some kind of Shangra-la. Thats fine, but then he has the arrogance to constantly brag about it in comparison to NY, where most people on this board reside. Then he has the gall to constantly critisize NYC and laugh at us also, which is going too far. If your content to listen to his London-centric tripe, about how everything in London is sooo superior to NYC, well fine, but I'm not going to just sit here and take it.

This is a NYC forum and we will not just sit here like complete wall-flowers while these arrogant snobs take over. I'm not defending Greg, but I would like to see some restraint on behalf of the English here regarding their city - they come across as the little boasting children and its extremely annoying.

Alonso, stop acting like the "holier than thou" wise elder. If you are not interested in this argument, do not enter it. If you are, do, but please don't insult me when I am just pointing out that snobs and booterists shouldn't be tolerated for years and years, as they appear more like trolls than serious posters. You don't like my argument, fine. But calling me a child just shows how immature you really are, not me. Resorting to silly cliches like "grow up" is just another sign of this.

As you speak french -- "j'espere que vous serez plus gentille la prochaine fois, merci"

[occalmnab]

I don't believe it.

I bet GT is laughing his ass off now.

[NudiJuicervich]

Ok there were about 20 insults in there. We dont need you to police the boards telling everyone what they should do. Perhaps come up with an intelligent arguement to refute their claims instead of repeating the words snob and boosterism over and over. Your reaction is disproportionate to the posts by the others. Your acting like 'the londoners' are attacking the board and taking over, they are not, there are many intelligent people on the board to reply to any post but you arent doing your 'cause' any favours by acting so extreme.

[Pasy]

Well, first of all Alonzo, you insulted me. Secondly, there is no argument to refute their claims. I can't say our airports are better or our rail system just as good as theirs, since its not true. Furthermore, I'm not going to dig into tons of data and try to open up a London v. NYC debate. The only point i'm trying to make is that these posters are often extremely one-sided, thats all, and that never changes. I would suggest a little restraint and ease up on the boasting and maybe practice a little more give-and-take. I ain't policing any board. Sorry for using the word snob, but when someone comes in and says basically "thats just another thing London has thats much better than most other places (which probably includes NYC in their minds), It just comes across as such.

Remeber, I came in here in defense of London against the silly anglophobe stuff from GT. Unfortunately, they preferred to over react with more of the same London-centric, anti NY tripe and I dislike that (sue me)

Thats all, I'm entitled to my opinion I believe.

[Qesomud]

Sadly GT has done his worst again, and people are at each others throats.

What a shame.

NYC and London are two of the worlds greatest cities, no one can disagree with that.

[Grapappytek]

As you speak french -- "j'espere que vous serez plus gentille la prochaine fois, merci"

Je demande que vous faites la meme chose a tout le monde.

[Eromaveabeara]

I recently traveled through Heafrow but unlike the British readers who commented in the Guardian article, I don't have to and avoid Heafrow as a rule (preferring Copenhagen and flying SAS).

I really don't care what happens in London - I dont have to live there and endure the awful food and mentality, but I can say as a traveler who has seen airports on at least 4 continents that Heafrow Sux Harry Ballz.

And this event was supposed to fix that.

Hong Kong's new airport was built on land reclaimed from the sea and the whole terminal is built on huge shock absorbers miles away from the old airport - so of course they were going to have problems.

T5 was built right next to T1-4. Why the problems there?

[tarmpriopay]

I really don't care what happens in London

Oh but you do, Gregory.

You care very much - or you wouldn't harp on about it so much.

It amuses me that of all the events / problems in the world at the moment - China's ruthless clampdown in Tibet, problems with the global economy, an estimated 3,000 babies a day dying from aids in Africa, global warming, the war in Iraq and threat from terrorism just to mention a few, you choose to start a thread about the great queation of our time.............. Terminal 5 at Heathrow and it 3 day old baggage handling problems.

No, you really don't care at all, do you.

[SoftrermaBioniaSat]

Hong Kong's new airport was built on land reclaimed from the sea and the whole terminal is built on huge shock absorbers miles away from the old airport - so of course they were going to have problems

The issues at HKIA were nothing to do with it being on land reclaimed from the sea; it opened late, way over budget and for the first few months was pretty horrendous to use because of the new technologies it was implementing.

Humanity has centuries of experience in reclaiming land, it doesn't have that when it comes to implementing new technologies hence the problems shared by Hong Kong and London, nobody will care or remember over the coming months, just like with Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore.....

[cheaploans]

^ Hong Kongs airport isn't particularly special.

When i arrived there it hardly blew me away, i landed, collected my luggage and left.

Its just an average aiport, and i can't say i can remember much of the experience at all.

Heathrow is the busiest airport in Europe in terms of total passenger traffic, with 67 million annual passengers. Pretty impressive in my opinion.

In a few weeks the teething problems will have been forgotten, and we will be able to enjoy a wonderful addition to Londons architecture.

I'll post my experiences here, when i use it in 8 weeks time.

[Butiqueso]

Actually, thats not fair. HKIA is amazing and won the best airport of the year award last year. Its rippling domes of the main terminals roofline is very very nice as are its ample retail opportunities. Calling it an average airport is odd IMO. Its setting makes it more impressive than most other airports in the world also.

[Old-old-Ivy]

What does IMO stand for - i don't know what it means.

After a 12 hour flight any airport would look average!!

As i said i can't remember much about it as i hadn't slept for 36 hours.

[ButKnillinoi]

IMO = In my opinion

IMHO = In my humble opinion

[Faungarne]

Its setting makes it more impressive than most other airports in the world also.

Yes, thats true, the setting is amazing, probably the most impressive of all the airports i've used.

I took a couple of photos as i was coming into land at Hong Kong, so i'll post them here when i get the chance - although you can hardly see the airport itself.

[simmons latex mattress]

Sadly GT has done his worst again, and people are at each others throats.

What a shame.

Settle the fvck down.

I already have a mother.

And she doesnt even carry on like you.

Nuff said.

[shumozar]

None of these airports (Heathrow T5, HK, etc...) look like much to me, architecturally. Large glass boxes with visible, sometimes curved steel beams. Yawn.

Not very humane. Amogn modenr airports, the (smaller) Tenerife North airport (not the crappy old south one) is quite nice, a lot og nice wood detail in a thoroughly modenr building.

Had to fly through T4 the other day... it's half empty (more like 2/3rds) due to BA decamping to T5 and I still had to sit in the goshdarned plane for 25 mins waiting for parking space.

Gotta say, if the UK was all like Heathrow, I'd have to be in agreement with Tenebaum's spewing. I've got it!!! Greg was stuck once at Heathrow like the guy in the movie "The Termianl".....no wonder he hates Britain!!


I loved the surreal dig about bad food in London... As we say in Italy: "from what pulpit doth the sermon issue?"

[KLIMOV25gyi]

Settle the fvck down.

I already have a mother.

And she doesnt even carry on like you.

Nuff said.

Maybe she should carry on like me.

You're abusive language doesn't do you any credit, but then again i guess you are an attorney.

Nuff said

[shieclulaweew]

I recall learning how to swear during a visit to London.

That and how to drink beer and watch footy.

What a glorious culture and to think that Heafrow is just the beginning!

Whats the latest news about Heafrow anyway?

Have they managed to introduce food thats actually edible yet?

[prehighaltitudesjj]

I've found some more maps showing the planned runway just to the north of Heathrow.





And the new terminal 5 itself




The busiest single destination in terms of passenger numbers is New York, with over 3.4 million passengers travelling between Heathrow and JFK / Newark airports in 2006.

[toopyimport]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...iness.heathrow

From the Guardian


Air travel: Terminal 5 still losing 900 bags every day

· Passengers face one in 12 risk of missing luggage
· Transfer flights hit by poor links to new terminal


Terminal 5 came in for renewed criticism yesterday after it emerged that passengers transferring between planes at Heathrow's troubled new £4.3bn building are losing more than 900 bags a day.
Trade union officials said T5's baggage handling system still needed improvement and travellers on connecting flights have a one in 12 chance of being separated from their luggage. Iggy Vaid, senior shop steward at the Unite union and a former T5 baggage handler, told MPs that 932 bags miss their onward journey from the terminal on a daily basis.
"If we change the process it will get better. We have to. There is no alternative," he said.
The baggage figures for passengers flying into Heathrow in order to catch a further flight, are still worse than for the rest of the airport, three months after the building's disastrous opening. According to Unite, 80 out of 1,000 bags on connecting flights from T5 do not get to their plane, against an average of 65-70 bags for the rest of the airport.
Steve Turner, Unite's national secretary for aviation, said the state-of-the-art automated baggage handling system at T5 was to blame. "That system is still in place and is still resulting in a significant number of bags not connecting with passengers."
The opening of T5 saw the cancellation of more than 500 British Airways flights after the baggage system failed. That cost the airline, the terminal's sole tenant, at least £16m.
BA said the main cause of lost transfer bags at T5 was flights arriving late because of runway congestion or delayed departures at other airports. However, Unite also blamed inadequate links between the building and BA's other terminals at Heathrow, meaning that bags arriving at Terminal 4 have to make a laborious journey to T5.
"There are lots of transfer bags landing in T4 and they have to be manually transferred to T5 because there is no mechanical system for loading the bags," said Vaid, who witnessed the T5 chaos at first hand as one of the BA baggage handlers in the building. BAA, Heathrow's owner, said a baggage link between T4 and T5 was under construction.
The Unite official's comments to the transport select committee alarmed MPs.
"Passengers will be surprised and disappointed to learn that there is still a one in 12 chance of losing their bags," said Philip Hollobone, Conservative MP for Kettering.
BA said T5's overall performance had improved significantly since the March 27 opening and the airport's overall missing baggage numbers had fallen since last year, with eight bags a thousand going missing. A BA spokesman said: "All major hub airports have issues in making sure that transfer bags travel between flights in the same way that transfer passengers do. This is due to the complexities of baggage procedures and how bags are moved through a series of security systems to get loaded on to their next aircraft."
Colin Matthews, BAA chief executive, told the committee that T5 is now "working well". He added: "It's not perfect. It's perfectly true that if an aircraft arrives late, transfer bags do not have a chance of making their connecting flight." He also agreed with MPs that the T5 opening had been "a national humiliation".
"Everybody was hoping and expecting a great performance and was deeply disappointed by our failure to do so."
Matthews said poor communication between BAA and BA had been the main cause of the fumbled opening.
BAA also contradicted BA's claim that small "teething problems" combined to cause the T5 crisis. Matthews said the biggest operational flaw had come at the end of the baggage handling process, when the BA staff who were to transfer luggage on to aircraft were not able to load the bags. As consequence, the baggage system soon overflowed and more than 20,000 bags were separated from their owners."


Seriously, the HeafRow Critique Bashers should just admit something isnt right about this "grand" airport.



Heaf Row


The Troof is Out There.