New fun for old Heathrow

It seems like there is always some sort of transportation crisis every August we are heading off to Heathrow to return to New York. We've had wildcat strikes by check-in staff, scheduled strikes by airline food-service workers, last year it was the emergency no-hand-luggage-at-all except for a see-through plastic bag scare, and before all that there was a massive petrol shortage.

This year, it's a batch of confused little anarchists who are hoping to win over hearts and minds by reportedly "planning bomb hoaxes and assaults on Heathrow's security fence." Their cause: stop traveling by airplanes because it's bad for the environment.

So depending on the normal Heathrow crisis, I may (or may not) be back in NYC by Wednesday evening.

It's worth quoting from my archives from last summer, as I'm always surprised how many people I talk to in NY never knew how crazy it got in London last year. From Aug. 15, 2006:

The good news is that our flight from Heathrow to JFK (12 and a half hours from now) hasn't yet been cancelled and we will probably be able to take our laptops on board rather than hastily stuff them into our luggage while standing in some horrendous line at the airport.

The bad news is that accurate information is impossible to find.

I've just received e-mail from a friend in the U.S. who had no idea the UK had banned laptops in planes for the past several days. And a couple days ago, I read NY Post and Daily News stories online saying things were back to normal for all flights arriving to New York. Yet a third of all flights out of Heathrow (many going to NYC) were completely canceled and the papers here carried stories about tanks at airports, check-in lines snaking out to the car parks (passengers were given plastic ponchos since they had to wait in the rain,) and people being forced to throw away their iPods, cell phones and just-purchased duty free goods at the gate because the rules had suddenly changed mid-day and if they wanted to check those items into the plane's cargo, it would mean missing the plane.

Labels: london

- posted by Amy @ 8/14/2007 04:18:00 AM