New trial underway

A trial is currently underway at Heathrow to understand if the runways and airspace around the airport can be used in a more efficient and flexible way to help cut delays and reduce the number of late running flights. As part of this Helios is providing support to the airport’s Flight Evaluation Unit to help the airport assess and communicate the impact of the trial.

The trial is a recommendation of the UK Government’s South East Airports Taskforce which was set up in 2010 to look at how to make London’s airports ‘better, not bigger’ and is running over two phases (1 November 2011 – 29 February 2012, and 1 July - 30 September 2012). Although it will not increase the number of flights operating into or out of Heathrow, it will allow more use of dual arrivals (where both runways are used for arrivals) and dual departures – although these procedures will not be used at the same time. However, these ‘operational freedoms’ will only be used on a limited basis subject to a number of ‘trigger’ criteria being met. These include arrival or departure delays of ten minutes or more, or following a period of disruption to facilitate recovery.

Helios is helping the airport to produce regular reports describing the performance of the airport during the trial – these are being published monthly on the dedicated website www.heathrowtrial.com. As part of this work, Helios is undertaking detailed analysis of operational, environmental and complaints data to understand how operational freedoms affect the performance and perception of the airport. Comparisons are being made with baseline periods from preceding winters when operational freedoms were not available. In addition, Helios is providing expert communication support to explain how the trial is operating to various stakeholders and, particularly, how local communities around the airport might be affected.

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