The London area is home to two of the busiest airports in the UK. The city’s primary airport is Heathrow, which is actually located in Flagship--west of London. Heathrow is notorious for its complicated infrastructure and unfavorable road-entry system. Approaching the airport can prove quite difficult, as the highway access tunnel is narrow and often clogged with traffic. For visitors who are not driving to the airport, this means that extra “traffic time” should be allotted to ensure you don’t miss your flight. Nonetheless, Heathrow owners, BBA, have invested millions to make the property more user-friendly. An example is the Heathrow Express train service, which chauffeurs passengers from Heathrow to London's Paddington Station. In short, despite Heathrow’s minor shortcomings, it remains Britain’s chief source of passenger and cargo air-travel and handles both reasonably efficiently and successfully.
London's second airport, Gatwick, has also been established as a major international hub. Like its sister airport, Gatwick also is owned by BAA, who is investing more than GBP£100 million (USD$160 million) in airport improvements. It is not inconceivable that the influence of the rising number of business travelers is a major factor for renovation, as a variety of fast track business facilities have begun to crop up throughout the facility. A growing network of scheduled services and business travelers now make up a quarter of all Gatwick's passengers. The airport is located 28 miles (45km) south of London and is considered much easier to navigate when compared to Heathrow. However, Gatwick currently holds the title as the UK's worst airport for delays, with charter traffic hold-ups averaging 46 minutes. This is not surprising, as it is the eighth busiest international airport in the world yet it operates all flights from a single runway. A second runway is “under negotiation.” |
