www.heathrowairport.com

As a way to help reduce delays that are caused by fog, London Heathrow Airport has announced new landing technology. This “microwave” technology will help to drastically reduce all delays that are caused by fog. The Microwave Landing System, as it is being called, has already been installed on 29 British Airways planes. This was a move that cost the airline about £5 million.

The claims of this new technology is that it will be able to increase 20 percent of the number of flights that will be able to land when the visibility at an airport is bad. Normally this would cause a delay, and it’s the first time that any kind of technology like this has been put to use anywhere in the world.

London’s main airports have their runways closed down from full capacity about 10 times a year due to fog. Although there is existing technology, known as Instrument Landing System, it uses beams of light and not microwaves to help the plane land safety. Thus, these beams can not be used when the ground is foggy, nor can the pilots safely land the plane by eyesight.

British Airways has fitted this new system to most of their short haul fleet. This includes planes like the A300s and the A321s. By the end of the year, British Airways wants to install these systems on their remaining 12 aircrafts. The reason why they want to put these systems on the short-haul flights is because they make several trips a day. Thus, they are more vulnerable to fog delays than the long-haul planes.

For more information visit: www.heathrowairport.com