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It’s fair to say that thinking about London Heathrow Airport doesn’t exactly fill most people with warm fuzzy feelings. Many frequent travellers will have endured some sort of farcical delay there at some point – and I know quite a few less-frequent travellers who essentially just find the whole place/experience entirely baffling.
Add in the bitter controversy over whether Heathrow should be expanded or not, and you’ve probably got one of the most hated places in Britain (at least when there’s an IT failure in the middle of the Summer Holidays…).
But look at what it could be!
A stunning haven of peace, order, glass, greenery and natural light.
The pro-expansion lobby recently released a promotional video about their plans, “It’s time for Heathrow”, which certainly looks impressive.
Some of the claims are a little ‘brave’ – not least the 180,000 new jobs and £211 Billion in economic benefits. Expansion is also going to “secure Britain’s future in the world” apparently, which sounds jolly good – if a trifle nebulous perhaps.
Without getting into the arguments (I don’t know anywhere near enough about the topic to have a serious opinion), I did very much enjoy closing my eyes and dreaming that maybe one day British airports could be a bit more like Changi:
And bit less like, well, Heathrow:
For what it’s worth, the ex transport minister Theresa Villiers, recently claimed that Heathrow expansion is never going to happen – so whatever the merits and demerits of the various plans for additional UK capacity, I doubt we’ll be seeing anything significant happening soon!
I’m quite fond of Heathrow. T5 is my favourite airport terminal. It’s become horribly overcrowded through departures, though. I think back six or seven years ago and it was relatively quiet, but now… they need to move some flights out of there.
I enjoy Heathrow still, but I only think that is because I use it a lot , I can see how it can be a nightmare if you don’t travel through it a lot.
The pictures of the glass ceiling look nice , but did make me laugh, as it will just be clouds and rain to view.
Haha – excellent point!
T5 is ok if it’s not too busy, you have an A gate and (ideally) lounge access. I’d still quite like a butterfly garden, swimming pool and cinema though!