Latest news with #Heathrow-bound
Scottish Sun
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Loved-up Tom Cruise, 62, splashes eye-watering sum on lavish gift for girlfriend Ana De Armas, 37
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) TOM Cruise is going all out to impress new girlfriend Ana de Armas — spending £8,600 just on a trip to an airport. The Hollywood actor, 62, splashed the cash on a trip to New York City. 4 Tom Cruise spent £8,600 on a trip to an airport for his new girlfriend Ana de Armas Credit: Getty 4 Ana and Tom after a mini-break to Madrid Credit: BackGrid 4 Ana in a chopper for a private Heathrow-bound flight Credit: BackGrid 4 Ana at JFK Airport in New York Credit: He chartered his own £1million helicopter to take her from central London to Heathrow Airport at a cost of £4,850. Tom then spent a further £3,812 getting her into the airport's VIP Windsor Suite. The £8,662 he spent was more than double the cost of her first class British Airways ticket across the pond. A source said: 'Tom wants Ana to know she can have the best of the best and doesn't think twice about the bill. 'He's a total gent and just wants to do right by Ana. "If that means splashing the cash then so be it.' Ana, who starred in Bond film No Time To Die in 2021 was first linked with Tom after they were spotted on a dinner date on Valentine's Day. Since then things have been hotting up — with Tom whisking her away for a mini-break to Madrid for Easter. They went public with their romance at David Beckham's 50th birthday party in London earlier this month.
The Irish Sun
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Loved-up Tom Cruise, 62, splashes eye-watering sum on lavish gift for girlfriend Ana De Armas, 37
TOM Cruise is going all out to impress new girlfriend Ana de Armas — spending £8,600 just on a trip to an airport. The Hollywood actor, 62, splashed the cash on a trip to New York City. 4 Tom Cruise spent £8,600 on a trip to an airport for his new girlfriend Ana de Armas Credit: Getty 4 Ana and Tom after a mini-break to Madrid Credit: BackGrid 4 Ana in a chopper for a private Heathrow-bound flight Credit: BackGrid 4 Ana at JFK Airport in New York Credit: He chartered his own £1million helicopter to take her from central London to Heathrow Airport at a cost of £4,850. Tom then spent a further £3,812 getting her into the airport's VIP Windsor Suite. The £8,662 he spent was more than double the cost of her first class British Airways ticket across the pond. A source said: 'Tom wants Ana to know she can have the best of the best and doesn't think twice about the bill. Read More on Showbiz 'He's a total gent and just wants to do right by Ana. "If that means splashing the cash then so be it.' Ana, who starred in Bond film No Time To Die in 2021 was first linked with Tom after they were spotted on a dinner date on Valentine's Day. Since then things have been hotting up — with Tom whisking her away for a mini-break to Madrid for Easter. Most read in Celebrity Inside David Beckham's 50th birthday party in London – from son Cruz's special performance to A-list guests
The Independent
26-03-2025
- The Independent
Heathrow closure: ‘Improve UK diversion airports so passengers don't end up on random Atlantic islands'
Shannon airport in the west of Ireland and Keflavik airport in Iceland are each beautifully located beside the wild Atlantic. Anyone seeking an escape to the raw edge of Europe should book a flight now. But both were among the many unexpected destinations for bleary transatlantic passengers on Friday morning. At 11.20pm on Thursday night, a fire broke out at an electricity substation at Hayes, near Heathrow airport. The supply to the UK's busiest airport was interrupted, and the airport shut down. All scheduled arrivals and almost all scheduled departures were cancelled. More than 100 inbound flights were already airborne. They either turned around and returned to their starting points, or diverted to dozens of airports across Europe. British Airways moved its earliest arrivals – from Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos and Singapore – down to Gatwick. But from then on, it was every pilot for themselves. Shannon in the west of Ireland was a particular favourite for inbound flights from Atlanta, Barbados and New York. Reykjavik was the surprise destination for one Heathrow-bound BA flight. The UK has plenty of airports. But more of the 100-plus planes aiming for Heathrow diverted to overseas destinations than to British locations. 'Passengers don't deserve to end up on random Atlantic islands,' says Matthew Purton. He is group aviation services director at Air Charter Service, an organisation that connects aircraft owners with people needing urgent transport. His company did some useful business at the weekend. Among other achievements, he flew an entire show production from Bologna to Glasgow after BA was unable to perform. He also organised a flight from Shannon for a disabled passenger whose United Airlines trip from the US to Heathrow was diverted to the west of Ireland. A diversion is, according to a pilot friend, "an incredibly complex drama'. He says: 'It's relatively easy for us in the cockpit. But once we ask air traffic control to divert, they have to liaise with airport operations, who check with handling agents, fuellers, immigration officials and even hotels.' Other issues include firefighting cover and parking space for aircraft and staff – from baggage handlers to passport officials – to cope with the unexpected influx. Yet some Atlantic locations specialise in providing facilities, says Purton. 'At places like Keflavik, Bermuda, Halifax and Gander [both in Canada], they have the ability to handle diversions at short notice. We don't seem to be able to do so in the UK. We either send the aircraft back to where they came from or we divert them to places like Shannon or Frankfurt.' Purton himself was on an Emirates Airbus A380 from Dubai that put down in Frankfurt due to high winds at Heathrow in December 2024. 'I think there needs to be a conversation started with all of the airports across the UK, so that when we have these situations where one of the major hubs closes, there is a better diversion plan. 'Places like Manchester and Glasgow, where these flights would normally have gone to, are now full with easyJet and Jet2. Low-cost carriers have come and they've expanded and the airports haven't kept pace with the demand for diversions. Airlines don't seem to have any kind of infrastructure in place for, say, a diversion from Heathrow to Glasgow on a 777 with 300 people.' Air Charter Services had a lucrative weekend, organising 'long-haul flights at very short notice for some high-end customers'. They included a short-notice trip from Stansted to Washington DC. But Matt Purton would rather be less busy. 'There are questions that need to be asked about the resilience of the UK and these continuing, in quotation marks, 'unprecedented events' that are becoming increasingly more precedented, with increasing regularity.'
Al Etihad
22-03-2025
- Business
- Al Etihad
Heathrow Airport 'fully operational' after fire shutdown
22 Mar 2025 21:41 London (AFP)Heathrow Airport said it was "fully operational" on Saturday, but passengers faced some delays and cancellations as Europe's busiest air hub resumed operations a day after a power station fire caused travel electricity substation blaze knocked out power at the London airport, closing it for most of Friday before some flights began to arrive and take off later in the shutdown affected thousands of passengers around the world."We can confirm that Heathrow is open and fully operational today," an airport spokesperson said early on Saturday."Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday's outage at an off-airport power substation."About 1,350 flights were affected by Friday's closure, according to the Flightradar24 tracking website. Around 120 Heathrow-bound planes were in the air when the closure was announced and had to be and cancellations were likely throughout Saturday as airlines scrambled to clear a backlog of flights and reposition aircraft and crews."We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today's schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport," the spokesperson Airways said it expected to operate around 85% of its scheduled flights at the airport throughout the day. The airline would normally run about 600 arrivals and departures on a Saturday."We are planning to operate as many flights as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to recover an operation of our size after such a significant incident is extremely complex," a BA spokesperson said."We expect around 85% of our Saturday Heathrow schedule to run, but it is likely that all travelling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges posed by Friday's power outage at the airport."Virgin Atlantic said in a statement it plans "to run a near full schedule with limited cancellations today".Travellers appeared jolly as planes took the skies again."We feel lucky. It feels everything is running quite smoothly," said 45-year-old Claire Montgomery, whose flight home to Austin, Texas, was scheduled on UK government temporarily lifted restrictions on overnight flights to help ease 230,000 passengers use Heathrow every day -- 83 million a year -- making it one of the world's busiest airports. Planes from Heathrow serve around 80 countries. 'No indication of foul play' The scale of the disruption -- which saw a back-up transformer fail, meaning systems had to be closed down -- raised questions about Heathrow's Airport's chief executive Thomas Woldbye told the BBC he was "proud" of the airport's response and said he would "let others judge" if he should step Secretary Ed Miliband ordered the National Energy System Operator, which operates Britain's electricity grid, to "urgently investigate" the incident."The government is determined to do everything it can to prevent a repeat of what happened," he said in a Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation into the fire given its impact, but said that there was "currently no indication of foul play".Fire officials said the blaze, which broke out on Thursday night, was "believed to be non-suspicious" and that an investigation would "focus on the electrical distribution equipment".Around 150 people were evacuated from nearby properties and the outage left 100,000 homes without power for several hours. Smoke could still be seen coming from the electrical substation on Saturday.
Sharjah 24
22-03-2025
- Sharjah 24
Heathrow Airport 'fully operational' after fire shutdown
The electricity substation blaze knocked out power at the London airport, closing it for most of Friday before some flights began to arrive and take off later in the evening. The shutdown affected thousands of passengers around the world and raised serious questions about the reliability of one of the UK's most critical pieces of infrastructure. "We can confirm that Heathrow is open and fully operational today," an airport spokesperson said on Saturday morning. "Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday's outage at an off-airport power substation." About 1,350 flights were affected by Friday's closure, according to the Flightradar24 tracking website. Around 120 Heathrow-bound planes were in the air when the closure was announced and had to be diverted. Delays and cancellations were likely throughout Saturday as airlines scrambled to clear a backlog of flights and reposition aircraft and crews. "We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today's schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport," the spokesperson said. British Airways said it expected to operate around 85 percent of its scheduled flights at the airport throughout the day. The airline would normally run about 600 arrivals and departures on a Saturday. "We are planning to operate as many flights as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to recover an operation of our size after such a significant incident is extremely complex," a BA spokesperson said. "We expect around 85 percent of our Saturday Heathrow schedule to run, but it is likely that all travelling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges posed by Friday's power outage at the airport." Virgin Atlantic said in a statement it plans "to run a near full schedule with limited cancellations today". Travellers appeared jolly as planes took the skies again. "We feel lucky. It feels everything is running quite smoothly," said 45-year-old Claire Montgomery, whose flight home to Austin, Texas, was scheduled on time. David Storck, a university professor said it was "miraculous" that his flight to Savannah, in the US state of Georgia, was reported as only five minutes late. "Everyone's in a positive mood. I was expecting people to be grumbly and sour but I think everyone is just so relieved," he said of the atmosphere. Restrictions on overnight flights have been temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, according to the UK's transport department. Around 230,000 passengers use Heathrow every day -- 83 million a year -- making it one of the world's busiest airports. Planes from Heathrow serve around 80 countries. No indication of foul play The scale of the disruption -- which saw a back-up transformer fail, meaning systems had to be closed down -- raised questions about Heathrow's vulnerability. Heathrow Airport's chief executive Thomas Woldbye told the BBC he was "proud" of the airport's response and said he would "let others judge" if he should step down. UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the government would "need to understand what caused an incident of this magnitude at an electricity substation that is very close to a critical piece of national infrastructure". London's Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation into the fire given its impact, but said that there was "currently no indication of foul play". Fire officials said the blaze, which broke out on Thursday night, was "believed to be non-suspicious" and that an investigation would "focus on the electrical distribution equipment". Around 150 people were evacuated from nearby properties and the outage left 100,000 homes without power for several hours. Smoke could still be seen coming from the electrical substation on Saturday morning.
