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[Lizzie Zoom]

There have been reports today that British Airways is going to shut it's Gatwick operation.

This must be a worrying move for the whole of the airline industry, and our DG, with massive job cuts expected beyond the 12,000 already announced at BA.

It looks like no new runways will now be necessary at either Gatwick or Heathrow, as even there BA and other airlines appear to be ready to shrink their services.

The only winner may be the environment!

[Rangie]

We have friends that live in Crawley not far from Gatwick several years ago there was virtually no unemployed in that area and the town was booming with a very high percentage of the locals working at the airport things will undoubtedly change , it's dreadful how this virus is going to change peoples lives.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Looking for a socialist tax payer bailout perhaps.

[Doctor Gollum]

Up until mid March there were more jobs than people

Norwegian will be retreating to Scandinavia and canning their long haul operation if their shareholders agree to a kicking on Monday. If they don't, then that will be the end of them too.

Which will leave EasyJet as the only sizeable carrier at Gatwick. And if Virgin go, the only UKish longhaul operator will be TUI, presuming that they don't go pop in the meantime 
Bryan Air will be getting a stonking deal on the ex Norwegian 737 Max orders.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Up until mid March there were more jobs than people

Norwegian will be retreating to Scandinavia and canning their long haul operation if their shareholders agree to a kicking on Monday. If they don't, then that will be the end of them too.

Which will leave EasyJet as the only sizeable carrier at Gatwick. And if Virgin go, the only UKish longhaul operator will be TUI, presuming that they don't go pop in the meantime 
Bryan Air will be getting a stonking deal on the ex Norwegian 737 Max orders.

That is all terrible news.

As well as the runways expansion plans at either Heathrow or Gatwick being shelved, I wonder what will now happen at the latter and the planned railway station redevelopment?

All this is the real bad news in regards to the virus. 100’s of thousands of jobs now in great jeppody!

[Doctor Gollum]

The station should have started already, but the airport has scaled back its development projects.

They've just spent a bucket load moving the A380 stand from Pier 6 to Pier 5, including strengthening the taxiway and stands. They've started redeveloping where the A380 used to go to add another 5/6 gates to Pier 6. Not sure if this is continuing or being made safe, but extending Pier 6 south with a second bridge won't be happening any time soon...

When 9/11 happened, they had started doing the ground work for Pier 6. After that, they threw the utilities in and concreted it over for 18 months, finally finishing it in 2005/6 rather than ready for 2003.

[Lizzie Zoom]

The station should have started already, but the airport has scaled back its development projects.

They've just spent a bucket load moving the A380 stand from Pier 6 to Pier 5, including strengthening the taxiway and stands. They've started redeveloping where the A380 used to go to add another 5/6 gates to Pier 6. Not sure if this is continuing or being made safe, but extending Pier 6 south with a second bridge won't be happening any time soon...

When 9/11 happened, they had started doing the ground work for Pier 6. After that, they threw the utilities in and concreted it over for 18 months, finally finishing it in 2005/6 rather than ready for 2003.

I am not surprised they are scaling everything back. But why are they creating so much work for the A380?  I understand that Airbus are stopping / have stopped production of that plane as it is now considered not fit for the demands of the airline industry with sales having been very disappointing. They are going the way of Boeing and pulling away from jumbo sized aircraft.

Now that size of aircraft will be even more out of place.  I note that BA are saying it will be YEARS before air travel recovers to pre virus levels. It will make the after affects of 9/11 seem like a picnic

[scimmy_man]

  I note that BA are saying it will be YEARS before air travel recovers to pre virus levels. It will make the after affects of 9/11 seem like a picnic

good, we fly far too easily in modern times,

[Lizzie Zoom]

  I note that BA are saying it will be YEARS before air travel recovers to pre virus levels. It will make the after affects of 9/11 seem like a picnic

good, we fly far too easily in modern times,

Maybe, but think of the consequences of all this on jobs, like Doctor Gollum’s, the Gatwick and Heathrow staff, the service industry, the aircraft maintenance crews, the aircraft builders, etc, etc!

It is going to be horrendous

We can go green, turn our backs on modernity, but then live through the worst recession the World has ever known with people, including children, starving on the streets.  Is that all worth it?

[STEMO]

  I note that BA are saying it will be YEARS before air travel recovers to pre virus levels. It will make the after affects of 9/11 seem like a picnic

good, we fly far too easily in modern times,

Maybe, but think of the consequences of all this on jobs, like Doctor Gollum’s, the Gatwick and Heathrow staff, the service industry, the aircraft maintenance crews, the aircraft builders, etc, etc!

It is going to be horrendous

We can go green, turn our backs on modernity, but then live through the worst recession the World has ever known with people, including children, starving on the streets.  Is that all worth it?

Last week it was rotting corpse on the streets, now it's starving children. Get a f**king grip.

[Doctor Gollum]

Re the A380...

Short answer: money also the A380 is a fat, heavy pig, so anywhere it touches the ground has to be reinforced over and above the existing weights such as B747/777/787. That's alot of digging up and filling.

When Pier 6 was built, the A380 hadn't flown, they put in a massive heavy duty stand... Gate 110, which is at an angle at the end of the pier. This was the only jetty serviced A380 gate on the airport. (Remote stands, 170's and 200's will all take it).

As it happened only Emirates regularly operates the A380 into Gatwick and it was only licensed for three daily flights... If the run extras, then Emirates have to use other aircraft, usually B777s.

EasyJet growth demanded more gate space, and getting 5-600 people over the bridge for one flight three times daily was eating into gate room space at all three flight waves (they used to use the gate rooms for 109, 110 and 111 for the Emirates, and whilst boarding it on 110, the other two gates could only be used for arrivals, which is limiting as Emirates trumped anything else. Bit of a stand planning headache )

Since 2014, Pier 5 has been undergoing redevelopment, and there's a tricky junction between the old BA domestic gates, 551-557, and the refreshed pier, 559-574. The solution, and probably at Emirates expense/demand, 557-559 was dug up and strengthened along with all the taxiway routes leading to it, a gate redesign with two more jetties and a ground layout redesign for all the shyte that the A380 needs. This opened November last year and work to 'correct' pier 6 and add in a further 5-6 lounge/jetty gates where 110 used to be in line with the rest of the pier. Inside will probably allow for more toilets and another couple of shops.

The only other A380 that regularly visited was the Hifly ex Singapore one that Norwegian used to charter to cover their Dreamliner engine destruction program. Given that they lost £15 on every single seat on it, that didn't happen that often. So as an aircraft, Gatwick can easily service them, but the only customer demand is from a single airline.

One of the benefits of the B777-10 with its folding wing tips (also the A350) is that it will fit onto any stand that the B747 will, and that's over half the jetty serviced gates st Gatwick, so that's the current future covered

[Sir Tigger KC]

  I note that BA are saying it will be YEARS before air travel recovers to pre virus levels. It will make the after affects of 9/11 seem like a picnic

good, we fly far too easily in modern times,

Maybe, but think of the consequences of all this on jobs, like Doctor Gollum’s, the Gatwick and Heathrow staff, the service industry, the aircraft maintenance crews, the aircraft builders, etc, etc!

It is going to be horrendous

We can go green, turn our backs on modernity, but then live through the worst recession the World has ever known with people, including children, starving on the streets.  Is that all worth it?

Last week it was rotting corpse on the streets, now it's starving children. Get a f**king grip.

They found van's full of rotting corpses in New York! 

[STEMO]

  I note that BA are saying it will be YEARS before air travel recovers to pre virus levels. It will make the after affects of 9/11 seem like a picnic

good, we fly far too easily in modern times,

Maybe, but think of the consequences of all this on jobs, like Doctor Gollum’s, the Gatwick and Heathrow staff, the service industry, the aircraft maintenance crews, the aircraft builders, etc, etc!

It is going to be horrendous

We can go green, turn our backs on modernity, but then live through the worst recession the World has ever known with people, including children, starving on the streets.  Is that all worth it?

Last week it was rotting corpse on the streets, now it's starving children. Get a f**king grip.

They found van's full of rotting corpses in New York! 

Yes, I read that. That's New York for you, doubt it will happen in old York.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

  I note that BA are saying it will be YEARS before air travel recovers to pre virus levels. It will make the after affects of 9/11 seem like a picnic

good, we fly far too easily in modern times,

Maybe, but think of the consequences of all this on jobs, like Doctor Gollum’s, the Gatwick and Heathrow staff, the service industry, the aircraft maintenance crews, the aircraft builders, etc, etc!

It is going to be horrendous

We can go green, turn our backs on modernity, but then live through the worst recession the World has ever known with people, including children, starving on the streets.  Is that all worth it?

Last week it was rotting corpse on the streets, now it's starving children. Get a f**king grip.

They found van's full of rotting corpses in New York! 

Soylent Green opportunity?

[Lizzie Zoom]

Re the A380...

Short answer: money also the A380 is a fat, heavy pig, so anywhere it touches the ground has to be reinforced over and above the existing weights such as B747/777/787. That's alot of digging up and filling.

When Pier 6 was built, the A380 hadn't flown, they put in a massive heavy duty stand... Gate 110, which is at an angle at the end of the pier. This was the only jetty serviced A380 gate on the airport. (Remote stands, 170's and 200's will all take it).

As it happened only Emirates regularly operates the A380 into Gatwick and it was only licensed for three daily flights... If the run extras, then Emirates have to use other aircraft, usually B777s.

EasyJet growth demanded more gate space, and getting 5-600 people over the bridge for one flight three times daily was eating into gate room space at all three flight waves (they used to use the gate rooms for 109, 110 and 111 for the Emirates, and whilst boarding it on 110, the other two gates could only be used for arrivals, which is limiting as Emirates trumped anything else. Bit of a stand planning headache )

Since 2014, Pier 5 has been undergoing redevelopment, and there's a tricky junction between the old BA domestic gates, 551-557, and the refreshed pier, 559-574. The solution, and probably at Emirates expense/demand, 557-559 was dug up and strengthened along with all the taxiway routes leading to it, a gate redesign with two more jetties and a ground layout redesign for all the shyte that the A380 needs. This opened November last year and work to 'correct' pier 6 and add in a further 5-6 lounge/jetty gates where 110 used to be in line with the rest of the pier. Inside will probably allow for more toilets and another couple of shops.

The only other A380 that regularly visited was the Hifly ex Singapore one that Norwegian used to charter to cover their Dreamliner engine destruction program. Given that they lost £15 on every single seat on it, that didn't happen that often. So as an aircraft, Gatwick can easily service them, but the only customer demand is from a single airline.

One of the benefits of the B777-10 with its folding wing tips (also the A350) is that it will fit onto any stand that the B747 will, and that's over half the jetty serviced gates st Gatwick, so that's the current future covered

Many thanks for that great explanation DG. 

It has taught me a lot that I am interested in