When was the last time you sat on a plane, with seat belt fastened, anxiously waiting for it to take-off safely but can't help noticing the plane upheaval in spirals, feeling insecured?
Only recently, I managed to find out the technical reason for that and that has something to do with the airport I once worked in - London's Heathrow Airport.
Did you know Heathrow Airport currently has the highest international passenger traffic in the world despite they only have 2 runways (one for take-offs and one for landing)? Between 2002 and 2006, the average delay at Heathrow had increased from 16.3 to 18.8 minutes according to BAA with all the four terminals operating in full stretch.
During the peak times at Heathrow, Jets take off as close as 1 minute apart as oppose to other international airports' average 2 minutes! The way they manage that is to make sure flights go in diverging routes and hence, the need to go in spiral movements after they take off. The astonishing 475,000 Takeoffs and Landings a year in Heathrow is probably encouraging other international airports to follow suit.
The time between each takeoff is famously known as the “Heathrow minute,” and to cope with the traffic, it is the job of the folks at the airport tower, i.e. the Air Traffic Controllers, to make sure the jets only take the bare minimum. I have a good friend in London applying for such a tough job, I still think she's insane but I want to wish her all the best and if she succeeds in that career, I will be so proud of her.
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