Introduction of the Heathrow
Airports are an important part of an economy because they play a significant role in the connection of people around the world, thereby enhancing globalization (Economy Watch 2010, para 1). The expansion is because there is no more physical distance to separate people in distant locations (Green 2014, para 1). The extent of this benefit can be realized in the enhanced trade, meaning that the flow of passengers increases every day. Such a large number needs proper logistics to ensure that the operations are streamlined. The Heathrow Airport located in London plays this major role and is fully equipped for the role. The airport is located on a 1227 hectares land and has two runways to cater for the traffic it receives every day. It can accommodate about 125 aircraft in each stand and serves about two hundred thousand passengers on a daily basis (Heathrow, 2015, para 1-4).
Considering the numbers stated above, Heathrow has been ranked third as the busiest airport internationally. Beijing and Atlanta are the only other airports that beat its traffic. With a staff of more than 76,000 and the daily flow of customers, the airport management has to employ proper logistics to ensure efficient flow of activities so that the client requirements and expectations are met (Warren 2014, para 3). This paper will evaluate the operations of the Heathrow Airport by first exploring its background, then the current activities, followed by the needed changes and finally the supply changes that are used by the management.
History of the Heathrow Airport
The Heathrow Airport was constructed in 1944 and was officially opened in 1946 under the name ‘London Airport’. Its Control Tower and the Central Terminal Area were however not operational until 1955 when The Queen opened them. It was not until 1966 that the named was changed to ‘Heathrow’ and by 1986 it already had four terminals that were fully operational. This increase in structures meant an increase in the number of workers needed to ensure a smooth operation of the airport. It was not until 2008 that the fifth terminal was launched after the new traffic control had been opened the previous year (Heathrow 2016, para 12). The airport’s facilities have been under constant refurbishment although, in 2015, the first terminal was officially closed.
Need for a Third Runway at Heathrow – Effects and Benefits
In the beginning, the Heathrow Airport only had one runway, however because of the increased traffic, the number has had to increase significantly. Today, Heathrow operates two runways and caters to more than 90 airlines and an excess of 187 destinations (The Travel Insider 2013 para 2). The annual number of passengers currently stands at more than twelve million, thereby raising the need for a third runway to serve the customers better (Proakt 2014, para 1-4). It is that this point that logistics management is applied by the management, British Airport Authority (BAA), to ensure that bottleneck operations are minimized. The Travel Insider further explains that the planned capacity for the airport was way less than what it is currently handling meaning that the theoretical design made no provision for the changes it has undergone over the decades (2013. Para 4). Proper calculations and logistic applications have ensured that the airport terminals are utilized at a rate of 100%, which is usually quite rare.
There is a dire need for the airport to add an extra terminal so that it could handle more flow on a daily basis. The current number of passengers that the airport can handle yearly is about 67 million, despite the planned capacity to be estimated at around 45 -55 million. This constraint has been caused and facilitated by the presence of only two terminals serving the extremely busy airport. The BAA needs to arrange for a third runway to be built so that the capacity that Heathrow Airport holds rises to about 115 million passengers per year. The number of aircraft would increase to 550,000 up from an average of 480,000 annually. The benefit of introducing this third runway is that it would come with the sixth terminal to enhance operations and improve efficiency.
There had been reports that the development of this third runway had been approved sometime in 2009, however, years later and it is still yet to be initiated. Despite the government approval, it is assumed that the bureaucracy surrounding the issue has led to red tapes that have halted the much-needed improvement to this London-based airport (The Travel Insider 2013, para 7). The hurdle facing this expansion project has been the locals who have been opposing the expansion of the airport probably because of the problems they experience such as pollution (Prince 2015, para 9; Airports Commission 2015, p. 187).
The contamination would affect businesses and homes, meaning many people would be affected directly and indirectly (The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 2016, para 14; Mousavi and Naji n.d, p. 3). The Opposition Conservative Party, which is part of the vying team for the next elections, has also opposed this development, suggesting that instead of the expansion, the passengers travel by train to other airports (Airport Watch 2016 para 1). In addition, a High Court ruling in 2010 declared that the approval of the third terminal by the government was invalid and incorrect, thereby halting the plan despite the benefits that could accrue from it.
Transformation Process Input and Output Process of Heathrow and Supply Changes
A process usually entails a series of continuous and interrelated actions performed towards a particular objective. The operations that occur at Heathrow Airport operate like that, and they include the passengers, as the bulk of it, with interrelation to cargo and luggage, and also the airport and airline crews that make up the airport movement. The transformation process, on the other hand, entails activities that involve inputs, which add value to the other process and produce the desired outputs for the target group, in this case, the Heathrow Airport customers (OpenLearn 2016, para 3). The transformation process mainly refers to supply chain management as part of the logistics that control the operations of the airport.
In this case, the inputs would be in the form of:
Conclusion
The Heathrow Airport has undergone a lot of transformation in terms of structure and operations over the years since its inception. The efficiency of this airline is, however, reducing because of the small capacity it offers to the ever growing flow of people and cargo that enter the airport on a daily basis. There is a great need for the management of this structure to ensure that proper logistic practices are employed to ensure that the passengers get quality services despite the structural constraint. The BAA needs to find an alternative to creating runway three since it was already declined yet the number of passengers is on a constant rise.
References
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