Latest news with #LondonHeathrowAirport
The Irish Sun
3 days ago
- The Irish Sun
One of the UK's most beautiful airport hotels with bee treasure hunts and fine dining restaurant
HILTON's London Heathrow T4 hotel is a lesson in how to make airport hotels classy. Here is everything you need to know about staying there. Advertisement 3 What it's like to stay at Hilton's London Heathrow T4 hotel 3 The lobby is one of the most beautiful ones at an airport hotel Where is the hotel? The Hilton hotel is just outside of London Heathrow Airport, and attached to the T4 terminal by a covered walkway. What is the hotel like? Despite being an airport hotel, it is certainly one of the most beautiful ones I've stayed in. The main lobby is full of light, with floor to ceiling windows stretching five floors high. Whether you are leaving at sunrise or arriving at sunset, it is a gorgeous spot to stay before or after a flight. Advertisement Read more on hotels What are the rooms like? The rooms are simple but have all that you need. Ranging from twins to to double and king sizes, there are also suites that have connecting doors for families. Comfy beds and large desks with a 50-inch HDTV make up the main room, with dressing gowns and towels provided. Leave the toiletries at home too, with Crabtree & Evelyn ones provided along with hairdryers in the en-suite bathrooms. Advertisement Most read in News Travel Rooms start from £139 a night. What is there to eat and drink? The hotel's OXBO restaurant shouldn't be missed if you need some breakfast or dinner. London Heathrow reveal top airport security tips The Hilton hotel prides itself on growing many of their own ingredients, so expect some of their own herbs in the gin, or honey made from their 160,000 bees on-site. I loved my rich duck lentil ragu which sent me into a food coma, as well as my breakfast pancakes the next morning drenched in the honey. Advertisement Kids have their own dedicated breakfast area too, with little pancakes, smoothies and potato rostis. What else is there to do there? The hotel has a gym that is open 24 hours, if you find yourself awake with jet lag at 3am. For younger guests, there is the Bee Our Guest experience. Kids can go on treasure hunts throughout the hotel, finding clues and wining prizes while learning about bees and their importance. Advertisement They can even buy the Hilton-exclusive book 'Daisy's Buzzing Adventure' from the hotel Market shop, or download a free ebook. Is the hotel family-friendly? Yes, there are family suites with connecting doors, as well as the Bee Our Guest experience for under 12s. This includes the treasure hunt, as well as the kids breakfast corner. Is there access for guests with disabilities? Yes, from accessible entrances and concierge desk, the lifts are also wheelchair accessible. Advertisement Some of the rooms have mobility features with 32" clear width doors and emergency pull cords. Other features include adapted handle cutlery, larger print menus as well as alarm clocks with vibrating pads or strobe lights. Looking for a place to stay? For more hotel inspiration click here. 3 Rooms start from £139 a night Advertisement
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
The boss of Heathrow slept through the first 6 hours of a mass power outage that shut down Europe's busiest airport
The CEO of London Heathrow Airport was asleep and colleagues struggled to reach him during the first hours of the shutdown in March. Some 200,000 passengers faced disruption when Europe's busiest airport suffered a power outage due to a fire at a nearby electrical substation. A review into the incident was published on Wednesday, shedding more light on how executives handled the crisis. The alarm was raised shortly after midnight on March 21, as several key systems lost power and others were left using back-up energy. However, Thomas Woldbye, the airport's CEO, could not be reached. The chief operating officer, Javier Echave, also attempted to call him "several times" during the early hours of the day, according to the review. Woldbye ultimately missed the decision to suspend airport operations, which was instead made by Echave. The CEO said he became aware of the incident at around 6:45 a.m., some five and a half hours after the airport had decided to shut down, and more than six hours after the first indication of problems. He reported to the review that he didn't hear the first alarm or Echave's calls because he wasn't aware that his phone had gone into silent mode while he was asleep. While the CEO's absence may have added to the stress on the day, both Echave and Woldbye said the decision to stop operations wouldn't have changed if the latter had been involved. The review recommended "enhancements" to the notification process of critical incidents, such as a second means of contacting key individuals. It added that Heathrow has "taken steps" to implement this. In total, 27 recommendations were made by the review, led by Ruth Kelly, an independent Heathrow board member and former UK transportation secretary. "Whilst the disruption was significant, alternative choices on the day would not have materially changed the outcome," she said in a press release. "The airport had contingency plans in place, and the report highlights that further planned investment in energy resilience will be key to reducing the impact of any similar events in the future," Kelly added. A full report from the National Energy System Operator is expected by the end of June.
Hans India
24-05-2025
- Hans India
British Airways flight returns due to technical glitch
Bengaluru: British Airways flight BA118, which departed Bengaluru at 7.40 am on Friday, returned after reaching Abu Dhabi due to a technical issue, Bengaluru airport sources said. The flight later departed for London, its original destination, at 2.30 pm, according to sources. In response to a PTI email, a British Airways spokesperson said, 'The aircraft landed safely back in Bengaluru as a precaution due to a technical issue. The aircraft was checked over and has since departed on its scheduled journey to London Heathrow.' A passenger, Satish Medapati (@Smedapati), posted on 'X': 'BA118 BLR-LON this morning returned to BLR after a few hours. We are still in the plane, but no valid information other than saying they have no info. Hope to get onto the skies soon (sic).' Satish did not respond to PTI's queries and has posted no further updates. Incidentally, London Heathrow Airport—one of the world's busiest—faced a major disruption on May 21 following a power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electrical substation. It was initially reported that the airport would remain closed through Friday
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Yahoo
I was on a flight - but British Airways told me I wasn't
An extraordinary thing happened to me on a recent flight to Madrid: I unwittingly travelled under the wrong identity, becoming a potential security issue, and no one realised. I was packing for a short business trip to make a film for the BBC when I attempted to check-in online. It didn't work, so I headed to London Heathrow Airport to do it in-person. Upon arrival there, I tried once again to check myself in, this time at a self-service booth. Again I was denied, the machine flashing up an error code: "Assistance required." I ended up at a check-in desk and after checking in my bag, a British Airways staff member handed me a boarding pass. Admittedly I didn't read the pass in any detail, but headed off to get processed in the security area as normal. At the gate, I was among the first passengers to board flight BA7055 departing at 10:50 on 23 April, operated by BA's Spanish partner carrier Iberia, as I was in row six. Dutifully, I handed my passport and boarding pass to a member of BA ground crew, who glanced at them both and waved me through. Once on board I realised my seat was in business class. I assumed this must have been a free upgrade, because I would of course usually have been in economy; we had chosen this flight because it was the most cost-effective option with all our filming equipment. No sooner were we off the tarmac and at cruising altitude than the delicious baked cod and chickpea stew lunch was served. Tiramisu for dessert, too. No complimentary alcohol for me though; it was a work trip. It was on arrival in the Spanish capital when things started to go wrong. As soon as I gained mobile signal on the ground, an email popped up: my return flight had been cancelled. I asked the BBC's travel provider what had happened and what the plan was for getting me home? In response, the travel company said it had been cancelled because I was a no-show on the outbound flight. I explained that I was in fact very much in Madrid and waiting - endlessly, it seemed - to collect my checked luggage from the baggage belt. After some no doubt confusing conversations between our travel team and BA, I received a further message to say the airline was adamant I had not travelled and that the boarding pass in my possession did not display the correct details. This was when I realised that the name on my boarding pass was not mine, it was a man called Huw H. The BBC is not using Huw H's full name, which was printed on the pass. His name was also printed on my luggage tags. BA claimed there was no way I could have travelled using that document as security checks wouldn't allow it - but I did. My colleague, who was seated a few rows behind me, can vouch for me being on that plane. The airline was so sure that I was not in Madrid that the BBC had to book me another seat on the flight home I was originally booked onto, at great expense. BA has since offered a £500 goodwill voucher as well as refunding the cost of the extra ticket. The security protocol for passengers boarding flights is relatively simple: ground crew must check the name on the boarding pass matches that on the passport presented. This process appears to have broken down in my case - with no one at check-in or the boarding gate identifying the discrepancy between the name on the boarding pass and my passport. So what went wrong, and who is Huw H? I tried to find out. Some internet sleuthing brought limited proof of Huw H's existence. I made a few attempts to contact accounts using his full name via various social media channels, to no avail. It's made me fear that he might not even exist. I did manage to get in touch with someone with a similar name - Jonathan Huw H - who, it turns out, flew on a BA flight on 24 April, a day after mine, landing at Heathrow, so is it possible his name was somehow floating around in the BA system? "It's really worrying," Jonathan told me. My married name, which was on my booking confirmation and passport, begins with the letter H - though is very different to Huw H's surname. Could this have factored in? It's impossible to know, and BA cannot confirm anything for privacy reasons. Simon Calder, travel correspondent at the Independent, said it was to be expected that mistakes will sometimes happen "in the high-pressure, deadline-strewn world of aviation". But he added: "This case is unusual in that the error wasn't picked up at the departure gate, where it could have been easily rectified. "The airline needs urgently to investigate and make amends." Aviation security and operations expert Julian Bray added: "There is a security issue here, in that the plane took off with an incorrect passenger manifest. "It is wrong and shouldn't have happened. The passenger manifest should be correct as it is an important document that shows who is travelling and where. That said, as the name on the baggage tag matched the one on the boarding pass and the correct number of people were on board when the plane took off, I can see how it happened." Others would argue that it was not a security risk, though, because both myself and my luggage went through all the usual security checks. A spokesperson for BA, which managed my ticket as well as the Heathrow ground crew in my case, said: "We've contacted our customer to apologise for this genuine human error. While incidents like this are extremely rare, we've taken proactive steps to ensure it doesn't happen again." Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority has told me it has launched an investigation into what happened. Heathrow Airport said in response to a request for comment that it was not responsible for the ground crew or anything else in my case, and security screening went ahead as normal. Iberia, whose only involvement in my journey was operating the outbound plane and cabin crew, has not responded to a request for comment. As is nothing out of the ordinary, my passport and boarding pass were not manually checked on the plane. Apologies and investigations aside, the question remains how this was ever possible in this day and age of high security. On social media there are threads about this type of thing happening around the world in the past, but the mistake was rectified before take-off as there were two people trying to sit in the same seat. What happened to me appears to be different as my name was seemingly replaced with someone who seemingly wasn't travelling to Spain that day. I'm not sure I'll ever really know what happened, but one thing is for sure - I won't ever walk away from a check-in desk without reading every detail printed on my boarding pass in future. Plane caught fire as pilot confused left and right Is Wizz Air's 'all you can fly' subscription too good to be true? What are my rights if my flight is cancelled or delayed?
Wales Online
15-05-2025
- Wales Online
Thousands of passengers face disruption with flights to be cancelled
Thousands of passengers face disruption with flights to be cancelled There will be delays on Friday and Monday A queue of passengers waiting at the boarding gate Finnair has warned that industrial action by the Finnish Aviation Union on Friday this week, May 16, will result in it cancelling around 60 flights on that day, affecting around 6,000 customers The airline has promised to offer alternative travel options for passengers whose flights might be cancelled. Finnair has also warned that further strikes planned for Monday May 19 could affect more flights, though it says it is still assessing the potential impact of any strikes on that day. On Monday May 19, the destinations with the most significant number of Finnair departures from Helsinki include London Heathrow Airport with six planned departures on that day. In addition to London Heathrow, Finnair also flies to and from Manchester and Edinburgh. When there were two similar strikes on May 2 and 5, Finnair ended up cancelling between a third and a half of flights scheduled for those days. Darina Kovacheva, Head of Legal at airline compensation specialists SkyRefund, said: "The EC 261/2004 regulation on air passenger rights remains applicable during strikes. Airlines must rebook affected passengers to their final destination at the earliest opportunity and offer Duty of Care, such as accommodation and meals, in the event of long delays. "If a flight is cancelled or heavily delayed, passengers may choose to request a refund instead. However, compensation for delays is not owed if the strike involves workers who are not directly employed by the airline. Article continues below "If the strike directly involves Finnair employees, if you present yourself on time for check-in with a valid flight reservation and travel documents, and you are denied boarding you might be entitled to € 250 if the distance you are travelling is 1,500 km or less; € 400 for flights of more than 1,500 km within the European Common Aviation Area and all others between 1,500 and 3,500 km, with all other flights of more than 3,500 km eligible for € 600 compensation. "But the airline you are travelling on is affected but its staff are not striking, and you are still affected, you will not be eligible for financial compensation as the delay or cancellation has been caused by "extraordinary circumstances". But we still advise you to keep receipts for any expenses you incur during the delay."
