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Heathrow Winter Resilience Programme London Airport
London deals with its difficult winter weather conditions

 

65 million passengers per year

5 terminals

24 hour activity

  • Heathrow Winter Resilience Programme London Airport
  • Heathrow Winter Resilience Programme London Airport
  • Heathrow Winter Resilience Programme London Airport
  • Heathrow Winter Resilience Programme London Airport
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Thanks to its experience on similar projects, Ineco has elaborated an anti-snow plan to guarantee the operability of Heathrow airport.

In order to avoid a repetition of the disasters of previous years when Heathrow airport had to close for several days due to heavy snow, the BAA (British Airport Authority) commissioned Ineco and Ferroser in a joint venture to draw up a plan for heavy snow conditions which will ensure that the London airport continues to operate in adverse weather conditions.

Heathrow is London’s main airport and is the largest international traffic hub in the world. It operates at almost full capacity for 18 hours and continues to operate overnight for a 6 hour period. Over 65 million passengers per year pass through its 5 terminals.

Due to this high demand, any serious incident may mean that the airport has to cancel some flights which in turn has a knock-on effect, leading to subsequent problems coping with the passenger traffic. Following heavy snowfall in 2010, which brought the airport to a standstill, the BBA implemented a series of studies to prevent this situation from recurring.

The resulting analyses led to the Winter Resilience Programme, a project designed to develop 14 key recommendations for ensuring that the disastrous scenario would never be repeated.

The Heathrow project benefited from the lessons learned in Madrid and enabled Ineco to implement projects resulting from the Madrid-Barajas experience which were crucial given their repercussion or the time taken to implement them.

Data Sheet
Location: United Kingdom
Client: BAA – British Airports Authority
Execution period: 2011
Market: Airports

Mobilisation procedure

Ineco’s works began in 2011, focusing on four basic tasks: cleaning of the aircraft parking areas in as short a time as possible; organisation and activation of the plan, which entailed a visit to the United Kingdom’s meteorological facilities in order to establish a methodology which would ensure weather warnings five days in advance; cleaning of runways and taxiways; and road cleaning.

BAA was confident that Ineco had sufficient experience and capabilities to improve and prepare London Heathrow airport for adverse winter weather conditions, so that in future it will be able to respond more effectively to heavy snowfalls.