1.
National Rail
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The name and the accompanying double arrow symbol are the intellectual property of the Secretary of State for Transport. The National Rail logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, and was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Identity Style Guidelines published by the Rail Delivery Group, the NR title is sometimes described as a brand. As it was used by British Rail, the operator before franchising, its use also maintains continuity and public familiarity. National Rail should not be confused with Network Rail, the two networks are generally coincident where passenger services are run. Most major Network Rail lines carry traffic and some lines are freight only. About twenty privately owned operating companies, each franchised for a defined term by government. The Rail Delivery Group is the association representing the TOCs and provides core services. It also runs Rail Settlement Plan, which allocates ticket revenue to the various TOCs, and Rail Staff Travel and it does not compile the national timetable, which is the joint responsibility of the Office of Rail Regulation and Network Rail. Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain, the look and feel of signage, liveries and marketing material is largely the preserve of the individual TOCs. However, National Rail continues to use BRs famous double-arrow symbol and it has been incorporated in the National Rail logotype and is displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and other publicity. The trademark rights to the arrow symbol remain state-owned, being vested in the Secretary of State for Transport. The double arrow was already prescribed for indicating a railway station, the lettering used in the National Rail logotype is a modified form of the typeface Sassoon Bold. It is a misconception that Rail Alphabet was also used for printed material. The British Rail typefaces of choice from 1965 were Helvetica and Univers, TOCs may use what they like, examples include Futura, Helvetica, Frutiger, Bliss, and a modified version of Precious by London Midland. Several conurbations have their own metro or tram systems, most of which are not part of National Rail, LO now also possesses some infrastructure in its own right, following the reopening of the former East London line of London Underground as the East London Railway of LO. Heathrow Express and Eurostar are also not part of the National Rail network despite sharing of stations, northern Ireland Railways were never part of British Rail, which was always confined to Great Britain, and therefore are not part of the National Rail network. National Rail services have a common ticketing structure inherited from British Rail, through tickets are available between any pair of stations on the network, and can be bought from any station ticket office
2.
Urban rail in the United Kingdom
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Urban rail, commuter rail, regional rail, or suburban rail plays a key role in public transport in many of the United Kingdoms major cities. Urban rail is defined as a service between a central business district and suburbs or other locations that draw large numbers of people on a daily basis. The trains providing such services may be termed commuter trains, unlike light rail, urban rail is classed as heavy rail, operating on lines shared with other passenger and freight trains with networks often larger than those of light rail. The infrastructure in Great Britain is owned by Network Rail, in Northern Ireland NI Railways have responsibility for both the infrastructure and operations. As urban rail networks are part of the rail network. Cycles can be taken on board in the majority of cases, unlike most light rail systems, only one ticket needs to be bought if a journey includes both mainline and urban rail. Urban rail usually has higher capacity than light rail because of longer trains, a few urban railways offer service during peak times only, and others operate less frequent trains during the evenings and on Sundays. Networks often encompass a few stations in a large city. In Northern Irelands capital, Northern Ireland Railways Belfast Suburban Rail serves Greater Belfast, Belfast Suburban Rail serves 39 different stations on three lines. Co-ordinated and subsidised by Transport for West Midlands, London Midland operates a network of 63 stations in the West Midlands county focused on Birmingham, London Midland operate the West Midlands commuter routes as London Midland City to distinguish them from their longer-distance routes. The main city-centre station is Birmingham New Street, operated by Network Rail, the other main stations in the West Midlands are Wolverhampton and Coventry. During 2014/15, there were nearly 51 million rail passenger journeys in the TfWM area, Birmingham has the highest proportion of rail commuters in England outside London. Most of the Birmingham and West Midlands County local commuter lines are centred on New Street station, including the Cross-City Line, the Chase Line, three commuter routes, known collectively as the Snow Hill Lines run through Snow Hill and Moor Street stations. Services run at ten-minute frequencies on the busiest routes, with most other operating at least a 15-20 or 30 minute frequency. Services are run as below, Birmingham Loop - Wolverhampton - Birmingham New Street - Birmingham International - Coventry, Cross-City Line - Lichfield Trent Valley – Birmingham New Street – Longbridge – Redditch. Chase Line - Birmingham New Street - Walsall - Rugeley Trent Valley, Snow Hill Lines - Worcester – Kidderminster – Stourbridge – Birmingham Snow Hill – Birmingham Moor Street – Solihull – Dorridge – Leamington Spa / Whitlocks End – Stratford upon Avon. Lines to Wolverhampton and Coventry operate from outside the TfWM-supported area, most notably on the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line, restoration of local passenger services to the freight only Walsall to Wolverhampton Line, is also being pursued. Centro was created in 1969 following the Transport Act 1968, the Transport Act 1985 deregulated and privatised bus services across the UK
3.
Belfast suburban rail
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The Belfast suburban rail commuter network serves the metropolitan area of Greater Belfast and some of its commuter towns with three lines. The network is owned by Translink and operated by N I Railways, stations - Belfast Great Victoria Street, Adelaide, Balmoral, Finaghy, Dunmurry, Derriaghy, Lambeg, Hilden, Lisburn, Moira, Lurgan, Portadown. This line has the potential to be extended from Portadown to Armagh city centre by reopening the railway line, government Minister for the Department for Regional Development, Danny Kennedy MLA indicates railway restoration plans of the line from Portadown to Armagh. Stations - Belfast Great Victoria Street, City Hospital, Botanic, Belfast Central, Titanic Quarter, Sydenham, Holywood, Marino, Cultra, Seahill, Helens Bay, Carnalea, Bangor West, Bangor. Most trains run directly from Bangor to Portadown and vice versa, the typical off-peak service on this route is 2tph. The last train of the day arrives in Bangor and Portadown shortly after midnight, services Belfast to Carrickfergus are typically every 30 mins daytime and hourly evenings and weekends. Trains extend to Larne typically every hour and this division is no longer recognised. Metro Translink Northern Ireland Railways Dublin Suburban Rail Cork Suburban Rail Galway Suburban Rail Limerick Suburban Rail Northern Ireland Railways
4.
Birmingham
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Birmingham is a major city and metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England lying on the River Rea, a small river that runs through Birmingham. It is the largest and most populous British city outside London, the city is in the West Midlands Built-up Area, the third most populous urban area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2,440,986 at the 2011 census. Birminghams metropolitan area is the second most populous in the UK with a population of 3.8 million and this also makes Birmingham the 8th most populous metropolitan area in Europe. By 1791 it was being hailed as the first manufacturing town in the world, perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive demolition. Today Birminghams economy is dominated by the service sector and its metropolitan economy is the second largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121. 1bn, and its six universities make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors, Birminghams sporting heritage can be felt worldwide, with the concept of the Football League and lawn tennis both originating from the city. Its most successful football club Aston Villa has won seven league titles, people from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the citys nickname of Brum. This originates from the citys name, Brummagem, which may in turn have been derived from one of the citys earlier names. There is a distinctive Brummie accent and dialect, Birminghams early history is that of a remote and marginal area. The main centres of population, power and wealth in the pre-industrial English Midlands lay in the fertile and accessible river valleys of the Trent, the Severn and the Avon. The area of modern Birmingham lay in between, on the upland Birmingham Plateau and within the wooded and sparsely populated Forest of Arden. Birmingham as a settlement dates from the Anglo-Saxon era, within a century of the charter Birmingham had grown into a prosperous urban centre of merchants and craftsmen. By 1327 it was the third-largest town in Warwickshire, a position it would retain for the next 200 years, by 1700 Birminghams population had increased fifteenfold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales. The importance of the manufacture of goods to Birminghams economy was recognised as early as 1538. Equally significant was the emerging role as a centre for the iron merchants who organised finance, supplied raw materials. The 18th century saw this tradition of free-thinking and collaboration blossom into the phenomenon now known as the Midlands Enlightenment
5.
Cardiff
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Cardiff is the capital and largest city in Wales and the eleventh-largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is the chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media. The unitary authority areas mid-2011 population was estimated to be 346,100, the Cardiff metropolitan area makes up over a third of the total population of Wales, with a mid-2011 population estimate of about 1,100,000 people. Cardiff is a significant tourist centre and the most popular destination in Wales with 18.3 million visitors in 2010. In 2011, Cardiff was ranked sixth in the world in National Geographics alternative tourist destinations, the city of Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan. Cardiff is part of the Eurocities network of the largest European cities, the Cardiff Urban Area covers a slightly larger area outside the county boundary, and includes the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a port for the transport of coal following the arrival of industry in the region contributed to its rise as a major city. Cardiff was made a city in 1905, and proclaimed the capital of Wales in 1955, since the 1980s, Cardiff has seen significant development. A new waterfront area at Cardiff Bay contains the Senedd building, home to the Welsh Assembly, sporting venues in the city include the Millennium Stadium, SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff International Sports Stadium and Cardiff Arms Park. The city was awarded the title of European City of Sport twice, due to its role in hosting major sporting events, first in 2009. The Millennium Stadium hosted 11 football matches as part of the 2012 Summer Olympics, including the opening event. Caerdydd derives from the earlier Welsh form Caerdyf, the change from -dyf to -dydd shows the colloquial alteration of Welsh f and dd, and was perhaps also driven by folk etymology. This sound change had probably first occurred in the Middle Ages, Caerdyf has its origins in post-Roman Brythonic words meaning the fort of the Taff. The fort probably refers to that established by the Romans, the anglicised form Cardiff is derived from Caerdyf, with the Welsh f borrowed as ff /f/, as also happens in Taff and Llandaff. As English does not have the vowel the final vowel has been borrowed as /ɪ/, although some sources repeat this theory, it has been rejected on linguistic grounds by modern scholars such as Professor Gwynedd Pierce. A group of five Bronze Age tumuli is at the summit of The Garth, four Iron Age hill fort and enclosure sites have been identified within Cardiffs present-day county boundaries, including Caerau Hillfort, an enclosed area of 5.1 hectares. The fort was one of a series of military outposts associated with Isca Augusta that acted as border defences, the fort may have been abandoned in the early 2nd century as the area had been subdued. However, by this time a settlement, or vicus, was established
6.
Edinburgh
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Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 local government council areas. Located in Lothian on the Firth of Forths southern shore, it is Scotlands second most populous city and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The 2014 official population estimates are 464,990 for the city of Edinburgh,492,680 for the authority area. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is home to the Scottish Parliament and it is the largest financial centre in the UK after London. Historically part of Midlothian, the city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scots law, literature, the sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582 and now one of four in the city, was placed 17th in the QS World University Rankings in 2013 and 2014. The city is famous for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. The citys historical and cultural attractions have made it the United Kingdoms second most popular tourist destination after London, attracting over one million overseas visitors each year. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, Edinburghs Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. It appears to derive from the place name Eidyn mentioned in the Old Welsh epic poem Y Gododdin, the poem names Din Eidyn as a hill fort in the territory of the Gododdin. The Celtic element din was dropped and replaced by the Old English burh, the first documentary evidence of the medieval burgh is a royal charter, c. 1124–1127, by King David I granting a toft in burgo meo de Edenesburg to the Priory of Dunfermline. In modern Gaelic, the city is called Dùn Èideann, the earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area was at Cramond, where evidence was found of a Mesolithic camp site dated to c.8500 BC. Traces of later Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have found on Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat, Craiglockhart Hill. When the Romans arrived in Lothian at the end of the 1st century AD, at some point before the 7th century AD, the Gododdin, who were presumably descendants of the Votadini, built the hill fort of Din Eidyn or Etin. Although its location has not been identified, it likely they would have chosen a commanding position like the Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat. In 638, the Gododdin stronghold was besieged by forces loyal to King Oswald of Northumbria and it thenceforth remained under their jurisdiction. The royal burgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, in 1638, King Charles Is attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In the 17th century, Edinburghs boundaries were defined by the citys defensive town walls
7.
Glasgow
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Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, and third largest in the United Kingdom. Historically part of Lanarkshire, it is now one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and it is situated on the River Clyde in the countrys West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as Glaswegians, Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Britain. From the 18th century the city grew as one of Great Britains main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America. Glasgow was the Second City of the British Empire for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew in population, reaching a peak of 1,128,473 in 1939. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers about 2.3 million people, at the 2011 census, Glasgow had a population density of 8, 790/sq mi, the highest of any Scottish city. Glasgow hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games and is well known in the sporting world for the football rivalry of the Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers. Glasgow is also known for Glasgow patter, a dialect that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city. Glasgow is the form of the ancient Cumbric name Glas Cau. Possibly referring to the area of Molendinar Burn where Glasgow Cathedral now stands, the later Gaelic name Baile Glas Chu, town of the grey dog, is purely a folk-etymology. The present site of Glasgow has been settled since prehistoric times, it is for settlement, being the furthest downstream fording point of the River Clyde, the origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately from its medieval position as Scotlands second largest bishopric. Glasgow increased in importance during the 10th and 11th centuries as the site of this bishopric, reorganised by King David I of Scotland and John, there had been an earlier religious site established by Saint Mungo in the 6th century. The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth, sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives as the Glasgow Fair. Glasgow grew over the following centuries, the first bridge over the River Clyde at Glasgow was recorded from around 1285, giving its name to the Briggait area of the city, forming the main North-South route over the river via Glasgow Cross. The founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to become the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492 increased the towns religious and educational status and landed wealth. Its early trade was in agriculture, brewing and fishing, with cured salmon and herring being exported to Europe, Glasgow was subsequently raised to the status of Royal Burgh in 1611. The citys Tobacco Lords created a water port at Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde. By the late 18th century more than half of the British tobacco trade was concentrated on Glasgows River Clyde, at the time, Glasgow held a commercial importance as the city participated in the trade of sugar, tobacco and later cotton
8.
Leeds
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Leeds /liːdz/ is a city in West Yorkshire, England. Historically in Yorkshires West Riding, the history of Leeds can be traced to the 5th century when the name referred to an area of the Kingdom of Elmet. The name has applied to many administrative entities over the centuries. It changed from being the appellation of a small borough in the 13th century, through several incarnations. In the 17th and 18th centuries Leeds became a centre for the production. During the Industrial Revolution, Leeds developed into a mill town, wool was the dominant industry but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing. From being a market town in the valley of the River Aire in the 16th century Leeds expanded and absorbed the surrounding villages to become a populous urban centre by the mid-20th century. The city has the third largest jobs total by local authority area with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015. Leeds is also ranked as a world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Leeds is served by four universities, and has the fourth largest student population in the country and has the fourth largest urban economy. After London, Leeds is the largest legal and financial centre in the UK, with over 30 national and international banks located in the city. Leeds is also the UKs third largest manufacturing centre with around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, the largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology. Outside of London, Leeds has the third busiest railway station, Public transport, rail and road communications networks in the region are focused on Leeds and there are a number of twinning arrangements with towns and cities in other countries. The name Leeds derives from the old Brythonic word Ladenses meaning people of the fast-flowing river and this name originally referred to the forested area covering most of the Brythonic kingdom of Elmet, which existed during the 5th century into the early 7th century. An inhabitant of Leeds is locally known as a Loiner, a word of uncertain origin, the term Leodensian is also used, from the citys Latin name. Leeds developed as a town in the Middle Ages as part of the local agricultural economy. Before the Industrial Revolution it became a centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth. Leeds handled one sixth of Englands export trade in 1770, growth, initially in textiles, was accelerated by the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699 and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816
9.
Liverpool
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Liverpool is a major city and metropolitan borough in North West England.24 million people in 2011. Liverpool historically lay within the ancient hundred of West Derby in the south west of the county of Lancashire and it became a borough from 1207 and a city from 1880. In 1889 it became a county borough independent of Lancashire, Liverpool sits on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary and its growth as a major port is paralleled by the expansion of the city throughout the Industrial Revolution. Along with general cargo, freight, raw materials such as coal and cotton, the city was also directly involved in the Atlantic slave trade. Liverpool was home to both the Cunard and White Star Line, and was the port of registry of the ocean liner RMS Titanic and others such as the RMS Lusitania, Queen Mary, and Olympic. The city celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2007, and it held the European Capital of Culture title together with Stavanger, Norway, several areas of Liverpool city centre were granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 2004. The Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City includes the Pier Head, Albert Dock, tourism forms a significant part of the citys economy. Liverpool is also the home of two Premier League football clubs, Liverpool and Everton, matches between the two being known as the Merseyside derby, the world-famous Grand National horse race takes place annually at Aintree Racecourse on the outskirts of the city. The city is home to the oldest Black African community in the country. Natives of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians and colloquially as Scousers, a reference to scouse, the word Scouse has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Pool is a place name element in England from the Brythonic word for a pond, inlet, or pit, cognate with the modern Welsh. The derivation of the first element remains uncertain, with the Welsh word Llif as the most plausible relative and this etymology is supported by its similarity to that of the archaic Welsh name for Liverpool Llynlleifiad. Other origins of the name have suggested, including elverpool. The name appeared in 1190 as Liuerpul, and it may be that the place appearing as Leyrpole, in a record of 1418. King Johns letters patent of 1207 announced the foundation of the borough of Liverpool, the original street plan of Liverpool is said to have been designed by King John near the same time it was granted a royal charter, making it a borough. The original seven streets were laid out in an H shape, Bank Street, Castle Street, Chapel Street, Dale Street, Juggler Street, Moor Street, in the 17th century there was slow progress in trade and population growth. Battles for the town were waged during the English Civil War, in 1699 Liverpool was made a parish by Act of Parliament, that same year its first slave ship, Liverpool Merchant, set sail for Africa. Since Roman times, the city of Chester on the River Dee had been the regions principal port on the Irish Sea
10.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
11.
Manchester
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Manchester is a major city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 514,414 as of 2013. It lies within the United Kingdoms second-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.55 million, Manchester is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority is Manchester City Council and it was historically a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated during the 20th century. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a township but began to expand at an astonishing rate around the turn of the 19th century. Manchesters unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and its fortunes declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation. The city centre was devastated in a bombing in 1996, but it led to extensive investment, in 2014, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Manchester as a beta world city, the highest-ranked British city apart from London. Manchester is the third-most visited city in the UK and it is notable for its architecture, culture, musical exports, media links, scientific and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the worlds first inter-city passenger railway station and in the city scientists first split the atom, the name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunium and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians. These are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name, both meanings are preserved in languages derived from Common Brittonic, mam meaning breast in Irish and mother in Welsh. The suffix -chester is a survival of Old English ceaster and their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Salford and Stretford. Central Manchester has been settled since this time. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield. After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell, much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North. Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor, founded and constructed a church for the parish in 1421. The church is now Manchester Cathedral, the premises of the college house Chethams School of Music. The library, which opened in 1653 and is open to the public today, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom. Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282, around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the regions textile industry
12.
Heathrow Airport
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Heathrow Airport is a major international airport in London, United Kingdom. In 2016, it handled a record 75.7 million passengers, Heathrow lies 14 miles west of Central London, and has two parallel east–west runways along with four operational terminals on a site that covers 12.27 square kilometres. London Heathrow is the hub for British Airways and the primary operating base for Virgin Atlantic. In September 2012, the UK government established the Airports Commission, in July 2015, the commission backed a third runway at Heathrow and the government approved a third runway in October 2016. Heathrow is 14 mi west of central London, near the end of the London Borough of Hillingdon on a parcel of land that is designated part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. The airport is surrounded by the areas of Harlington, Harmondsworth, Longford and Cranford to the north and by Hounslow. To the south lie Bedfont and Stanwell while to the west Heathrow is separated from Slough in Berkshire by the M25 motorway, Heathrow falls entirely under the TW postcode area. As the airport is west of London and as its runways run east–west, for a chronicled history of Heathrow Airport, see History of Heathrow Airport. Heathrow Airport originated in 1929 as an airfield on land south-east of the hamlet of Heathrow from which the airport takes its name. At that time there were farms, market gardens and orchards there, there was a Heathrow Farm about where Terminal 1 is now, a Heathrow Hall and a Heathrow House. This hamlet was largely along a lane which ran roughly along the east. Development of the whole Heathrow area as a much larger airport began in 1944. But by the time the airfield was nearing completion, World War II had ended, the government continued to develop the airport as a civil airport, it opened as London Airport in 1946 and was renamed Heathrow Airport in 1966. Heathrow Airport is used by over 80 airlines flying to 185 destinations in 84 countries, the airport is the primary hub of British Airways and is a base for Virgin Atlantic. It has four terminals and a cargo terminal. Of Heathrows 73.4 million passengers in 2014, 93% were international travellers, the busiest single destination in passenger numbers is New York, with over 3 million passengers flying between Heathrow and JFK Airport in 2013. As the required length for runways has grown, Heathrow now has two parallel runways running east–west. These are extended versions of the two east–west runways from the original hexagram, from the air, almost all of the original runways can still be seen, incorporated into the present system of taxiways
13.
West Coast Main Line
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The West Coast Main Line is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. It is one of the busiest mixed-traffic railway routes in Europe, carrying a mixture of intercity rail, regional rail, the core route of the WCML runs from London to Glasgow, with branches diverging to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, totalling a route mileage of 700 miles. Services from London to North Wales and Edinburgh also run via the WCML and it is one of the busiest freight routes in Europe, carrying 40% of all UK rail freight traffic. The line is the rail freight corridor linking the European mainland through London and South East England to the West Midlands. The line has been declared a strategic European route and designated a priority Trans-European Networks route, other traffic is limited to 110 mph. The route between Rugby and Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stafford was the main line until the Trent Valley Line was built in 1847. A further branch at Carstairs links Edinburgh to the WCML, providing a connection between the WCML and the East Coast Main Line. This legacy means the WCML has limitations as a main line, with lower maximum speeds than the East Coast Main Line route. The WCML was not originally conceived as a trunk route. After the completion of the successful Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, and so this is how the early stages of the WCML evolved. The first stretch of what is now the WCML was the Grand Junction Railway connecting Liverpool and Manchester to Birmingham, via Crewe, Stafford, the following year the London and Birmingham Railway was completed, connecting to the capital via Coventry, Rugby and the Watford Gap. Three other sections, the North Union Railway, the Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway, another important section, the North Staffordshire Railway, which opened its route in 1848 from Macclesfield to Stafford and Colwich via Stoke-on-Trent also remained independent. Poor relations between the LNWR and the NSR meant that trains did not run until 1867. The route to Scotland was marketed by the LNWR as The Premier Line, because the cross-border trains ran over the LNWR and Caledonian Railway, through trains consisted of jointly owned West Coast Joint Stock to simplify operations. The first direct London to Glasgow trains in the 1850s took 12.5 hours to complete the 400-mile journey, the final sections of what is now the WCML were put in place over the following decades by the LNWR. To expand capacity, the line between London and Rugby was widened to four tracks in the 1870s, as part of this work, a new line, the Northampton Loop was built, opening in 1881, connecting Northampton before rejoining the main line at Rugby. The route came under the control of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway on 1 January 1923 when railway companies were grouped, the LMS competed fiercely with the rival LNERs East Coast Main Line for London to Scotland traffic. As part of the 1955 modernisation plan, the line was modernised and electrified in stages between 1959 and 1974, the first stretch to be electrified was Crewe to Manchester, completed on 12 September 1960
14.
M1 motorway
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The M1 is a south-north motorway in England connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK, the first road to be built to standard in the country was the Preston By-pass. The motorway is 193 miles long and was constructed in four phases, most of the motorway was opened between 1959 and 1968 but the southern end was extended in 1977 and the northern end was extended in 1999. It forms part of the unsigned European route E13, there had been plans since before the Second World War for a motorway network in the United Kingdom. The first section of motorway was the Preston Bypass in Lancashire, the M1 was Britains first full-length motorway and opened in 1959. The early M1 had no speed limits, no central reservation or crash barriers, the first section of the motorway opened between Junction 5 and Junction 18 on 2 November 1959 together with the motorways two spurs, the M10 and the M45. Parts of the Hertfordshire section were built using steam rollers. P, – Minister of Transport – Inauguration Day – 24th March 1958. It was relocated, during widening works in 2007–08, to the side of junction 10. This section of the M1 broadly follows the route of the A5 north-west and it starts at the Watford Bypass, which runs south-east to meet the A1 at Apex corner, and ended on the A5 at Crick. The M10 spur motorway connected the M1 to the North Orbital Road where it met the A5 and,2 miles to the east via the A414, the A6. Although the whole of first section opened in 1959, it was built in two parts with the part being built by John Laing and the southern part being built by Tarmac Construction. The continuation of the motorway from Junction 18 towards Yorkshire was carried out as a series of extensions between 1965 and 1968. From Junction 32, the motorway passes Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Wakefield, reaching the original end of the motorway at Junction 44 to the east of Leeds. There were plans to route the M1 from just south of Junction 42 where it interchanges with the M62, round the west of Leeds to the A1 at Dishforth, with the M62 and M621, the M1 forms a ring of motorways around the south of Leeds. In 1972 an extension of the M1 was opened into central Leeds as the Leeds South Eastern Motorway where it met the Leeds South Western Motorway coming north-east from the M62 at Junction 3. Sections to be illuminated included the M1 between Junctions 3 and 14, and between Junctions 16 and 24, the motorway junctions and their approaches, and a section of the M1 on either side of Junction 11, would have lighting columns replaced and remain lit. All lighting columns from Junctions 10 to 14 have now been removed completely, between 1996 and 1999 the M1 section north of the M62 underwent a major reconstruction and extension to take the M1 on a new route to the A1 at Aberford. The new road involved the construction of a series of new junctions, bridges, when the new section of M1 was completed and opened on 4 February 1999, the Leeds South Eastern Motorway section of the M1 was redesignated as the M621 and the junctions were given new numbers
15.
Privatisation of British Rail
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The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had completed by 1997. Historically, the British railways had been in ownership since 1948. It was under Thatchers successor John Major that the railways themselves were privatised, the operations of the BRB were broken up and sold off, with various regulatory functions transferred to the newly created office of the Rail Regulator. Ownership of the infrastructure including the stations passed to Railtrack, while track maintenance. Ownership and operation of trains passed to two companies – English Welsh & Scottish and Freightliner, less than the originally intended six. Despite opposition from the Labour Party, who gained power in 1997 under Tony Blair, the process has never been reversed wholesale by any government. A significant change came in 2001 with the collapse of Railtrack, the regulatory structures have also subsequently changed. Historically, the railway companies were almost entirely self-sufficient, including, for example. As a consequence of the nationalisation of the railways in 1948 some of these activities had been hived off to other nationalised industries and institutions, e. g. The preferred organisational structure in the 1970s was for the BRB to form wholly owned subsidiaries which were run at an arms-length relationship, there were five Regions, each region being formed of several Divisions, and each division of several Areas. The chain of British Transport Hotels was sold off, mainly one hotel at a time, sealink was sold in 1984 to Sea Containers, who ultimately sold the routes to their current owner, Stena Line. Also catering business Travellers Fare was sold in 1988 to a management buyout team, BREL Ltd was soon sold to the Swiss-Swedish conglomerate ASEA Brown-Boveri, which renamed the company ABB Transportation. A merger between ABB Transportation and Daimler Benz created ADtranz on 1 January 1996, ADtranz was subsequently taken over by the Canadian-owned conglomerate, for reasons of efficiency and to reduce the amount of subsidy required from government British Rail undertook a comprehensive organisational restructuring in the late 1980s. Commuter services in the south-east came under the London & South East sector, Services in Scotland were operated by ScotRail, and Provincial sector handled local and rural routes. The regional management structure continued in parallel for a few years before it was abolished, sectorisation was generally regarded within the industry as a great success, and it was to have a considerable effect on the way in which privatisation would be carried out. Although owned and maintained by Foster Yeoman, the Class 59s were manned by British Rail staff, during acceptance trials, on 16 February 1986 locomotive 59001 hauled a train weighing 4639 tonnes – the heaviest load ever hauled by a single non-articulated traction unit. In Sweden in 1988 the State Railways, Statens Järnvägar, was split into two – Banverket to control the network, and SJ to operate the trains
16.
Impact of the privatisation of British Rail
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The impact of the privatisation of British Rail in the 1990s has been the subject of much debate, which has continued to the present day. Since privatisation, customer service has improved and many lines have seen enhancements in this field with better on-board. Passenger satisfaction according to the National Rail Passenger survey has risen from 76% in 1999 to 83% in 2013, however, the impact of the Hatfield rail accident in 2000 left services seriously affected for many months after. According to a Eurobarometer poll, satisfaction with rail of UK respondents is the second highest in the EU, the poll found that average UK satisfaction over four different areas was 78%, ahead of France, Germany and Italy. Since privatisation, the number of rail journeys had increased by 117% by 2014. There is controversy as to how much of this is due to privatisation, and how much is due to factors such as rising fuel prices, road congestion, low unemployment. However this increase has kept going during the duration of privatisation. In an attempt to protect passengers interests, certain fares and basic elements of the timetable were regulated, however, the TOCs still had quite a bit of latitude in changing unregulated fares and could change the number of trains run within certain regulatory and practical limitations. Overall, fare increases have been at a slower rate than under British Rail.14 compared to £5.17 in 2014 and this is to try and reduce the huge number of people travelling at peak times. For example, over half of National Rail journeys into London occur in the three hours from 7am to 10am, with half of these occurring between 8 and 9. On average, train fares per journey cost 2. 7% more in terms in 2011–12 than in 1994-5 under British Rail. The promoters of privatisation expected that the ROSCOs would compete against each other to provide the TOCs with the stock they required. Old rolling stock was profitable to the ROSCOs, as they were able to charge substantial amounts for their hire even though British Rail had already written off their construction costs. As trains grow older, the cost of their lease does not decrease.7 years old to 20.2 years old. The former Metro Cammell plant in Birmingham followed suit in 2005, of the original manufacturers, only the former British Rail research centre and associated BREL works in Derby and Crewe survive to the present day, now owned by Canadian conglomerate Bombardier. However, Hitachi have opened a new £82 million factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, the key index used to assess passenger train performance is the Public Performance Measure, which combines figures for punctuality and reliability. From a base of 90% of trains arriving on time in 1998, however, in August 2016 the PPM stood at about 88% after the annual moving average peaked at around 92% in 2011. The research showed that 150 people have lived who might have been expected to die in crashes had pre-privatisation trends continued
17.
Traffic congestion
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Traffic congestion is a condition on transport networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. The most common example is the use of roads by vehicles. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction between vehicles slows the speed of the stream, this results in some congestion. As demand approaches the capacity of a road, extreme traffic congestion sets in, when vehicles are fully stopped for periods of time, this is colloquially known as a traffic jam or traffic snarl-up. Traffic congestion can lead to becoming frustrated and engaging in road rage. Mathematically, congestion is usually looked at as the number of vehicles that pass through a point in a window of time, Congestion flow lends itself to principles of fluid dynamics. Traffic congestion occurs when a volume of traffic or modal split generates demand for greater than the available street capacity. About half of U. S. traffic congestion is recurring, Traffic research still cannot fully predict under which conditions a traffic jam may suddenly occur. It has been found that individual incidents may cause ripple effects which then spread out and create a traffic jam when, otherwise. Some traffic engineers have attempted to apply the rules of fluid dynamics to traffic flow, Traffic scientists liken such a situation to the sudden freezing of supercooled fluid. However, unlike a fluid, traffic flow is affected by signals or other events at junctions that periodically affect the smooth flow of traffic. Alternative mathematical theories exist, such as Boris Kerners three-phase traffic theory, because of the poor correlation of theoretical models to actual observed traffic flows, transportation planners and highway engineers attempt to forecast traffic flow using empirical models. These models are typically calibrated by measuring actual traffic flows on the links in the network. That discovery enabled the team to solve traffic-jam equations that were first theorized in the 1950s, congested roads can be seen as an example of the tragedy of the commons. Privatization of highways and road pricing have both proposed as measures that may reduce congestion through economic incentives and disincentives. Congestion can also happen due to non-recurring highway incidents, such as a crash or roadworks, economist Anthony Downs argues that rush hour traffic congestion is inevitable because of the benefits of having a relatively standard work day. In a capitalist economy, goods can be allocated either by pricing or by queueing and they determined that the number of vehicle-kilometers traveled increases in direct proportion to the available lane-kilometers of roadways. The implication is that new roads and widening existing ones only results in additional traffic that continues to rise until peak congestion returns to the previous level
18.
Air transport in the United Kingdom
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Air transport in the United Kingdom is the commercial carriage of passengers, freight and mail by aircraft, both within the United Kingdom and between the UK and the rest of the world. One airport, London Heathrow Airport, is amongst the top ten busiest airports in the world, more than half of all passengers travelling by air in the UK currently travel via the five London area airports. Outside of London, Manchester Airport is by far the largest and busiest of the remaining airports, regional airports have experienced the most growth in recent years, due to the success of no-frills airlines over the last decade. In 2013 the UK had the third highest number of passengers carried of any country, behind only the United States, imperial Airways and British Airways Limited were merged and nationalised as BOAC in 1939. In the 1970s, aircraft manufacturers were merged and nationalised as British Aerospace, in the 1980s, British Airways and British Aerospace were privatised again by the Thatcher government. The advent in the mid-1990s of ’no-frills’ carriers, such as easyJet, in 2005 these airlines carried 77.5 million passengers, up from just 4.3 million in 1996. In response, traditional carriers have lowered costs to more effectively on price, leading to lower prices on the short haul routes served by this sector. They have also limited or reduced capacity and in some cases launched no-frills subsidiaries of their own, although the number of airports in the UK runs into hundreds, many are smaller aerodromes dealing with general aviation rather than air transport. In terms of the latter, statistics are collected from 59 main airports, nearly a third of all overseas residents visiting the UK enter the country via this airport, which also handles more than a fifth of all overseas visits by UK residents. Heathrow is also a gateway and usually has up to 20 dedicated cargo aircraft using its facilities every day. The largest of which is DHL who also lease cargo aircraft to British Airways for weekend operations. Gatwick airport, with 34 million terminal passengers, is the second largest in the country, eighth busiest in the world, between them the five London airports handle nearly 137 million terminal passengers,59 per cent of the national total. Together the two largest airlines as measured by numbers, British Airways and easyJet, account for nearly half of the 127 million passengers flown on UK airlines. In terms of capacity, both available and used, British Airways is again the largest airline, whilst easyJet is pushed into place by Virgin Atlantic Airways. Just over a fifth of all passengers are travelling on domestic routes only. Of the latter, travel between the UK and Spain, France, Germany and Italy account for half, with Spain almost matching the other three combined in terms of passenger numbers. Air travel is the most popular mode of transport for both to and from the UK. In 2005 it was used for 80 per cent of all visits by UK residents travelling overseas, just over a quarter of all passengers are travelling on business
19.
Heathrow Terminal 5
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Heathrow Terminal 5 is an airport terminal at Heathrow Airport, the main airport serving London. Opened in 2008, the building in the complex is the largest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom. Prior to 2012, the terminal was used solely by British Airways, the terminal was designed to handle 35 million passengers a year. In 2015, Terminal 5 handled 33.1 million passengers on 215,716 flights,44. 6% of the passengers on 46. 6% of its flights with an average of 153 passengers per flight. It was the busiest terminal at the airport, measured both by passenger numbers and flight movements, the buildings leading architects were from the Richard Rogers Partnership and production design was completed by aviation architects Pascall+Watson. The engineers for the structure were Arup and Mott MacDonald, the building cost £4 billion and took almost 20 years from conception to completion, including the longest public inquiry in British history. Planning studies for the terminal commenced in February 1988 and Richard Rogers was selected to design the terminal in 1989, Rogers compared his design to the Centre Pompidou, an earlier project that has similar flexibility in the use of its space. BAA formally announced its proposal for construction of T5 in May 1992, a public inquiry into the proposals began on 16 May 1995 and lasted nearly four years, finally ending on 17 March 1999 after sitting for 525 days. The inquiry, based at the Renaissance Hotel Heathrow, was the longest planning inquiry ever held in the UK, construction, which was undertaken by Laing ORourke, began in September 2002, with earthworks for the construction of the buildings foundation. A preparatory archaeological dig at the site more than 80,000 artefacts. In November of the year, work started on the steel superstructure of the main terminal building. By January 2005, the nine tunnels needed to provide road and rail access, in March that year, the sixth and final section of the main terminal roof was lifted into position, and in December the building was made weatherproof. The roof could not have been lifted with conventional cranes because it would have penetrated vertically into the radar field. Therefore, the roof was assembled on the ground using smaller cranes, then lifted into place by eight custom-built towers, each fitted with two hydraulic jacks to pull the roof up. At peak there were around 8,000 people working on the construction site, over 15,000 volunteers were recruited for a total of 68 trials lasting from September 2007 until March 2008 to test the operational readiness of Terminal 5 prior to its opening. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened Terminal 5 in a ceremony on 14 March 2008, used exclusively by British Airways, the terminal opened for passenger use on 27 March 2008, with flight BA26 from Hong Kong its first arrival at 04,50 GMT. On the day of opening, it became apparent that the new terminal was not operating as planned, forcing British Airways to cancel 34 flights. Over the following 10 days some 42,000 bags failed to travel with their owners, British Airways was not able to operate its full schedule from Terminal 5 until 8 April 2008 and had to postpone the transfer of its long-haul flights from Terminal 4 to Terminal 5
20.
Aerodrome
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An aerodrome or airdrome is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither. Aerodromes include small general aviation airfields, large airports. The term airport may imply a certain stature that an aerodrome may not have achieved and that is to say, all airports are aerodromes, but not all aerodromes are airports. Usage of the term aerodrome remains more common in the UK and Commonwealth nations, a water aerodrome is an area of open water used regularly by seaplanes or amphibious aircraft for landing and taking off. The word aerodrome derives from Ancient Greek ἀήρ, air, and δρόμος, road or course, an ancient linguistic parallel is hippodrome, derived from ἵππος, horse, and δρόμος, course. In Canada and Australia, aerodrome is a term of art for any area of land or water used for aircraft operation. International Civil Aviation Organization documents use the aerodrome, for example, in the Annex to the ICAO Convention about aerodromes, their physical characteristics. However, the airfield or airport mostly superseded use of aerodrome after World War II. The city of the first aerodrome in the world is a French commune named Viry-Chatillon, the unimproved airfield remains a phenomenon in military aspects. The DHC-4 Caribou served in the U. S. military in Vietnam, landing on rough, earlier, the Ju-52 and Fieseler Storch could do the same, one example of the latter taking off from the Führerbunker whilst completely surrounded by Russian troops. An airport is an aerodrome certificated for commercial flights, an air base is an aerodrome with significant facilities to support aircraft and crew. The term is reserved for military bases, but also applies to civil seaplane bases. An airstrip is an aerodrome that consists only of a runway with perhaps fueling equipment. They are generally in remote locations, many airstrips were built on the hundreds of islands in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. A few airstrips grew to become full-fledged airbases as strategic or economic importance of a region increased over time. An Advanced Landing Ground was an airstrip used by the Allies in the run-up to and during the invasion of Normandy. A water aerodrome is an area of water used regularly by seaplanes or amphibious aircraft for landing and taking off. It may have a building on land and/or a place where the plane can come to shore
21.
Road surface
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Road surface or pavement is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past, gravel road surfaces, cobblestone and granite setts were extensively used, Road surfaces are frequently marked to guide traffic. Today, permeable paving methods are beginning to be used for low-impact roadways and walkways, asphalt, sometimes called flexible pavement due to the nature in which it distributes loads, has been widely used since the 1920s. The viscous nature of the bitumen binder allows asphalt concrete to sustain significant plastic deformation, most asphalt surfaces are laid on a gravel base, which is generally at least as thick as the asphalt layer, although some full depth asphalt surfaces are laid directly on the native subgrade. In areas with soft or expansive subgrades such as clay or peat. Depending on the temperature at which it is applied, asphalt is categorized as hot mix, warm mix, hot mix asphalt is applied at temperatures over 300 °F with a free floating screed. Warm mix asphalt is applied at temperatures of 200–250 °F, resulting in reduced energy usage, cold mix asphalt is often used on lower volume rural roads, where hot mix asphalt would cool too much on the long trip from the asphalt plant to the construction site. An asphalt concrete surface will generally be constructed for primary highways having an average annual daily traffic load greater than 1200 vehicles per day. Advantages of asphalt roadways include relatively low noise, relatively low cost compared with other paving methods, in the mid-1960s, rubberized asphalt was used for the first time, mixing crumb rubber from used tires with asphalt. Also, application of rubberized asphalt is more temperature-sensitive, and in many locations can only be applied at times of the year. Study results of the long-term acoustic benefits of rubberized asphalt are inconclusive, compared to traditional passive attenuating measures, rubberized asphalt provides shorter-lasting and lesser acoustic benefits at typically much greater expense. Concrete surfaces are created using a mix of Portland cement, coarse aggregate, sand. In many cases there will also be Portland cement substitutes added and this can reduce the cost of the concrete and improve its physical properties. The water allows the mix to combine molecularly in a reaction called hydration. Concrete surfaces have been refined into three types, jointed plain, jointed reinforced and continuously reinforced. The one item that each type is the jointing system used to control crack development. Jointed plain concrete pavements contain enough joints to control the location of all the expected shrinkage cracks, the concrete cracks at the joints and not elsewhere in the slabs. Jointed plain pavements do not contain any steel reinforcement, however, there may be smooth steel bars at transverse joints and deformed steel bars at longitudinal joints
22.
Heliport
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A Heliport is by definition an area of land, water, or structure used or intended to be used for the landing and takeoff of helicopters, and includes its buildings and facilities. In other words, it is an airport suitable for use by helicopters. Designated heliports typically contain one or more touchdown and liftoff area, in some larger towns and cities, customs facilities may also be available. Early advocates of helicopters hoped that heliports would become widespread, other terms used to refer to a heliport are, Helistop - A term sometimes used to describe a minimally developed heliport for boarding and discharging passengers or cargo. Helipad - A term oftentimes confused with heliport or helistop, the only reference of this term in the U. S. Helideck - Used to describe the area on a vessel or offshore structure on which helicopters may land. The airspace immediately surrounding the heliport is called the Primary Surface and this area coincides in shape and size with the designated take-off and landing area. This surface is a horizontal plane equal to the elevation of the established heliport elevation, the Primary Surface is further broken down into three distinct regions. These are, the Touchdown and Liftoff area, the Final Approach and Takeoff area, the TLOF is a load-bearing, generally paved area, normally centered in the FATO, on which the helicopter lands and/or takes off. The FATO is an area over which the pilot completes the final phase of the approach to a hover or a landing. The FATO elevation is the lowest elevation of the edge of the TLOF, the Safety Area is a defined area on a heliport surrounding the FATO intended to reduce the risk of damage to helicopters accidentally diverging from the FATO. In a large metropolitan and urban areas a heliport can serve passengers needing to move within the city or to outlying regions. Generally heliports can be situated closer to a town or city center than an airport for fixed-wing aircraft, the advantage in flying by helicopter to a destination or even to the citys main airport is that travel can be much faster than driving. Some skyscrapers feature rooftop heliports or helistops to serve the needs of executives or clients. Many of these sites also serve as Emergency Helicopter Landing Facilities in case emergency evacuation is needed. Bank Tower in Los Angeles is an example, police departments use heliports as a base for police helicopters, and larger departments may have a dedicated large heliport facility dedicated such as the LAPD Hooper Heliport. Heliports are common features at hospitals where they serve to facilitate Helicopter Air Ambulance and MEDEVACs for transferring patients into, some large trauma centers have multiple heliports while most small hospitals have just one. The National EMS Pilots Association has published multiple white papers, surveys, while heliports can be oriented in a any direction they will have generally have very definitive approach and departure paths
23.
The World Factbook
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The World Factbook is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available from the National Technical Information Service, Other companies—such as Skyhorse Publishing—also print a paper edition. The Factbook is available in the form of a website that is updated every week. It is also available for download for use off-line, the World Factbook is prepared by the CIA for the use of U. S. Government officials, and its style, format, coverage, and content are primarily designed to meet their requirements. However, it is used as a resource for academic research papers. As a work of the U. S. Government, it is in the domain in the United States. In researching the Factbook, the CIA uses the sources listed below, Other public and private sources are also consulted. However, the CIA requests that it be cited when the Factbook is used, copying the official seal of the CIA without permission is prohibited by U. S. federal law—specifically, the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949. Before November 2001 The World Factbook website was updated yearly, from 2004 to 2010 it was updated every two weeks, since 2010 it has been updated weekly, generally, information currently available as of January 1 of the current year is used in preparing the Factbook. The first, classified, edition of Factbook was published in August 1962, the World Factbook was first available to the public in print in 1975. In 2008 the CIA discontinued printing the Factbook themselves, instead turning printing responsibilities over to the Government Printing Office and this happened due to a CIA decision to focus Factbook resources on the online edition. The Factbook has been on the World Wide Web since October 1994, the web version gets an average of 6 million visits per month, it can also be downloaded. The official printed version is sold by the Government Printing Office, in past years, the Factbook was available on CD-ROM, microfiche, magnetic tape, and floppy disk. Many Internet sites use information and images from the CIA World Factbook, several publishers, including Grand River Books, Potomac Books, and Skyhorse Publishing have re-published the Factbook in recent years. As of July 2011, The World Factbook consists of 267 entities and these entities can be divided into categories. They are, Independent countries This category has independent countries, which the CIA defines as people politically organized into a state with a definite territory. In this category, there are 195 entities, others The Other category is a list of other places set apart from the list of independent countries. Currently there are two, Taiwan and the European Union, dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty This category is a list of places affiliated with another country
24.
Heathrow Airport Holdings
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Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited, formerly BAA is the United Kingdom-based operator of London Heathrow Airport. The company also operated London Gatwick and Stansted airports, plus several other UK airports under its former name, in March 2009 the company was required to sell Gatwick and Stansted airports, and over the following years sold all its airports other than Heathrow. The company was renamed Heathrow Airport Holdings in 2012 to reflect its main business, the companys head office is located in The Compass Centre on the grounds of London Heathrow Airport in the London Borough of Hillingdon. The company makes money from charging landing fees to airlines and increasingly from ancillary operations within those airports such as retail, in the following few years, the authority acquired responsibility for Glasgow International Airport, Edinburgh Airport, Southampton Airport and Aberdeen Airport. The Authority took on the Ministry of Civil Aviation Constabulary in 1966, which was renamed to become the British Airports Authority Constabulary, the initial capitalisation of BAA plc was £1,225 million. In the early 1990s, the company sold Prestwick International Airport, in July 2006, BAA was taken over by a consortium led by Ferrovial, following a bid which valued the company at £10.1 billion. As a result, the company was delisted from the London Stock Exchange on 15 August 2006. Following the take-over, the decision was made to sell the stake in Ferihegy and this was completed in June 2007, when a consortium led by Hochtief AirPort of Germany purchased the stake. After an inquiry from August 2008 – March 2009, the UK Competition Commission announced that BAA would be required to sell three of the seven UK airports it owned at the time, the sales were forecast to raise between £3. 5bn and £4bn. BAA announced plans to sell Gatwick Airport on 17 September 2008, at that time, Gatwick Airport was valued at £1. Ferrovial and its partners had been seeking £1. 8bn- £2bn when they opened the bidding process, eventually, the sale was confirmed on 21 October 2009 and formally completed on 3 December 2009, for a fee of £1.51 billion. This was almost 25 per cent less than BAA had expected Gatwick would fetch when the sale was announced a year previously, BAA sold the airport to Global Infrastructure Partners, the fund backed by Credit Suisse and General Electric, who also operate London City Airport. Ferrovial, the majority holder in BAA, said that it expected to make a loss of around 142 million euros against its consolidated earnings following the sale. On 19 October 2011, BAA announced that Edinburgh Airport would be put up for sale in early 2012 with an aim to handing over the running of the site to a new owner by summer 2012, the airport was sold to Global Infrastructure Partners in 2012. On 18 January 2013, Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited announced the sale of Stansted to the Manchester Airports Group, in May 2014, Heathrow Airport Holdings announced the appointment of John Holland-Kaye, current Development Director, as chief executive officer, succeeding Colin Matthews on 1 July 2014. As BAA, the company was adamant that its name did not officially stand for anything and it was still widely referred to as the British Airports Authority by both the media and the public – even though the Authority was dissolved following the 1986 privatisation. The companys former logo, composed of three triangles, was created by John Lloyd and Jim Northover of the design consultancy, Lloyd Northover. The original BAA plc was acquired in 2006 by Airport Development and Investment Limited, in October 2008 ADI changed its name to BAA Limited, and on 15 October 2012, the company announced that it had changed its name to Heathrow Airport Holdings
25.
Gatwick Airport
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Gatwick Airport is a major international airport in south-east England,29.5 miles south of Central London and 2.7 nautical miles north of Crawley. It is the second-busiest airport by passenger traffic in the United Kingdom. Gatwick is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe, Gatwick opened as an aerodrome in the late 1920s, and has been in use for commercial flights since 1933. The airport has two terminals, the North Terminal and the South Terminal, which areas of 98,000 m2 and 160,000 m2 respectively. It operates as a airport, using a main runway with a length of 3,316 m. A secondary runway is available but, due to its proximity to the main runway, in 2016,43.1 million passengers passed through the airport, a 7. 1% increase compared with 2015. The land on which Gatwick Airport stands was first developed as an aerodrome in the late 1920s, the Air Ministry approved commercial flights from the site in 1933, and the first terminal, The Beehive, was built in 1935. Scheduled air services from the new terminal began the following year, major development work at the airport took place during the 1950s. The airport buildings were designed by Yorke Rosenberg Mardall between 1955 and 1988, further rapid growth of charter flights at Gatwick was encouraged by the Ministry of Aviation, which instructed airlines to move regular charter flights from Heathrow. Following the takeover of BUA by Caledonian Airways at the beginning of the following decade, while continuing to dominate scheduled operations at Gatwick for most of the 1980s, BCal was also one of the airports major charter airlines until the end of the 1970s. Following the demise of Air Europe and Dan-Air in the early 1990s and these moves resulted in BA becoming Gatwicks dominant airline by the turn of the millennium. BAs subsequent decision to de-hub Gatwick provided the space for EasyJet to establish its biggest base at the airport, BAA Limited and its predecessors, BAA plc and the British Airports Authority, owned and operated Gatwick from 1 April 1966 to 2 December 2009. From 1978 to 2008, many flights to and from the United States used Gatwick because of restrictions on the use of Heathrow implemented in the Bermuda II agreement between the UK and the US. US Airways, Gatwicks last remaining US carrier, ended service from Gatwick on 30 March 2013 and this leaves Gatwick without a scheduled US airline for the first time in nearly 40 years. On 17 September 2008, BAA announced it would sell Gatwick after the Competition Commission published a report about BAAs market dominance in London, the sale was completed on 3 December. The sales were part of GIPs strategy to syndicate the equity portion of the acquisition by issuing bonds to refinance bank debt. Although this entails bringing additional investors into the airport, GIP aims to retain management control, the Californian state pension fund CalPERS acquired a 12. 7% stake in Gatwick Airport for about $155 million in June 2010. This transaction completed GIPs syndication process for the airport, reducing its stake to 42%, the airport is owned and operated by Gatwick Airport Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ivy Holdco Limited
26.
Global Infrastructure Partners
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Global Infrastructure Partners is an infrastructure investment fund making both equity and selected debt investments. As a leading, global, independent, infrastructure investor, GIP combines specialist industry experience, the Fund applies its complementary skill sets and experience to actively manage its portfolio investments with the goals of improving their service quality and financial performance. GIP is headquartered in New York City and its equity investments are in infrastructure assets in the energy, transport, GIP employs approximately 150 investment and operational professionals and has offices in New York, London and Sydney Australia and operational headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. In the aggregate, its portfolio companies employ approximately 21,000 people, Global Infrastructure Partners was established in May 2006. Two of GIPs founding investors in its first fund, GIP I, were Credit Suisse, each of these investors committed approximately 9% of the US$5.64 billion of GIP Is total committed capital. The firms first investment was announced in October 2006 and it was a 50,50 joint venture between GIP and American International Group to acquire London City Airport for an undisclosed sum. GIP announced the sale of LCY in February 2016 for a significant multiple of its 2006 acquisition price, additionally, GIP has made a cross section of investments in other areas of the transport sector as well as the natural resource and power generation areas of the energy sector. These assets include sea ports, freight facilities, midstream natural resources. Global Infrastructure Partners first fund, GIP I, completed its fund raising in May 2008 with $5.65 billion in capital commitments. The fund became fully invested during 2012, exceeding what it had initially projected, GIPs third fund -- GIP III -- completed fund raising in January 2017 with approximately $15.8 billion in investor capital commitments. As of January 2017, Global Infrastructure Partners had aggregate assets under management of approximately US$40 billion with its investments largely concentrated in OECD countries
27.
Manchester Airport
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Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England,7.5 nautical miles south west of Manchester city centre. In 2016, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers, the airport comprises three terminals, a goods terminal and is the only British airport other than Londons Heathrow Airport to operate two runways over 3,280 yd in length. Manchester Airport covers an area of 560 hectares and has flights to 199 destinations, officially opened on 25 June 1938, it was initially known as Ringway Airport. In the Second World War, as RAF Ringway, it was a base for the Royal Air Force, Ringway, after which the airport was named, is a village with a few buildings and church at the southern edge of the airport. The airport handled 25.6 million passengers in 2016, a record total and this potential figure is limited by the airports restriction to 61 aircraft movements per hour. Manchester Airport started construction on 28 November 1935 and opened partly in June 1937 and completely on 25 June 1938, after the Second World War, the base reverted to a civilian airport and gradually expanded to its present size. Historically, Manchester Airport was consistently the busiest airport after London Heathrow for a number of following the war. In 1972, the M56 motorway opened to the airport, by 1993, the airport railway station opened. From 1997 to 2001 its second runway was built, causing protests in the area. In October 2008 the daily New York–JFK service was terminated and in March 2013. This leaves a daily high frequency BA Shuttle serving London Heathrow, in codeshare with British Airways Oneworld Alliance partner American Airlines operations remain in Terminal 3 with daily flights to both New York–JFK and Chicago–OHare. American Airlines has since merged with US Airways, which offers service to Philadelphia and operated a seasonal route to Charlotte. Since taking over BA Connects select routes, Flybe has gone on to add more destinations. In 2013 Virgin Atlantic introduced its Little Red short-haul brand to take-up some of the available Heathrow, Manchester was the inaugural destination, with services were operated by aircraft wet-leased from Aer Lingus. However, these ceased in March 2015 due to low popularity. As part of the Governments The Future of Air Transport White Paper, Manchester Airport published its Master Plan on its proposed expansions until 2030. A full-length parallel taxiway may be added to the second runway, the World Logistics Hub is also part of the Airport City Enterprise Developments in South Manchester. This development is designed to meet the demand for cargo handling space
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Manchester Airport Group
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Founded in 2001 following the acquisition of East Midlands Airport, MAG is the largest UK-owned airport operator, following the purchase of BAA by Spains Ferrovial Group in 2006. The Group owns four British airports, Bournemouth, East Midlands and Manchester Airport which is the busiest airport outside the London region, as well as London Stansted Airport. In 2014,47.1 million passengers used Manchester Airports Group Of the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester, Manchester City Council holds the largest stake. The remaining nine councils hold a total of 29%, IFM Investors own a 35. 5% stake in MAG. The Group has its office at Manchester Town Hall. MAG operates on a basis at arms length from its public owners who only take a dividend from profits. This was £20 million in 2010 while MAG retained £80 million from the £100 million profit, Manchester Airport opened in 1938 and was funded by Manchester City Council and has remained in public ownership ever since. It is the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom after Heathrow, the M56 motorway was built to serve the airport in 1972, a new rail station was opened in 1993 and a second runway was completed in 1997. In 1999, Manchester Airport bought Humberside Airport marking its arrival as a management company. In 2000, National Express put both East Midlands and Bournemouth Airport up for sale - both of which were sold for £241 million to MAG in 2001. Consequently, the councils of Greater Manchester saw it fit to create a holding company to manage this portfolio at arms length. Manchester Airports Group was formed in 2001 to own and operate Manchester Airport, the property and development arm of MAG, previously known as MADL, was rebranded as MAG Developments in early 2009. The Group reported 2007/08 profits of £96. 5m and decided in 2008 to sell Humberside Airport after 9 years of ownership, however this decision was reversed later in the year following a surge in passenger numbers and little interest from potential bidders. MAG made a £1.4 billion offer to acquire Gatwick Airport in 2009, originally BAA wanted £2 billion for the airport, but eventually came down to an asking price of £1.5 billion. However, MAG refused to arrange a further £100 million of finance, in January 2013 it was announced that MAG had agreed to purchase London Stansted Airport for £1.5 billion. The sale was completed on 28 February 2013, the Group are focused on delivering the £659 million Manchester Airport City. Planning permission for the Airport City development was confirmed on 17 January 2013, on 18 January 2013, it was announced that MAG would purchase Stansted Airport from Heathrow Airport Holdings for £1. 5bn. IFM Investors purchased a 35. 5% stake in MAG to help fund the takeover, the sale was completed on 28 February 2013
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Stansted Airport
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London Stansted currently serves over 170 destinations across Europe, North Africa, Central and North America and more scheduled European destinations than any other airport in the UK. Stansted is a base for a number of major European low-cost carriers, being the largest base for low-cost airline Ryanair, in 2015 it was the fourth busiest airport in the United Kingdom after Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester. The airport is owned and operated by the Manchester Airports Group, MAG agreed to buy the airport from Heathrow Airport Holdings, formerly BAA, on 18 January 2013, and the sale was completed for £1.5 billion on 28 February 2013. BAA had been required to sell the following a ruling originally made by the Competition Commission in March 2009. In 2016 Stansted handled a record 24.3 million passengers, London Stansted Airport has one main passenger terminal, near the village of Stansted Mountfitchet. The base of each structure is a utility pillar, which provides indirect uplighting illumination and is the location for air-conditioning, water, telecommunications. Passenger totals have since risen, and in 2016 recorded an increase of 8. 0% to 24.3 million. Although the official name was Stansted Mountfitchet, the base was known as simply Stansted in both written and spoken form, the station was first allocated to the USAAF Eighth Air Force in August 1942 as a heavy bomber airfield. As well as a bomber base, Stansted was also a Air Technical Services Command maintenance and supply depot concerned with major overhauls. After D-Day, these activities were transferred to France, but the base was used as a supply storage area for the support of aircraft on the continent. After the withdrawal of the Americans on 12 August 1945, Stansted was taken over by the Air Ministry and used by No.263 Maintenance Unit, in addition, between March 1946 and August 1947, Stansted was used for housing German prisoners of war. The Ministry of Civil Aviation finally took control of Stansted in 1949, the US military returned in 1954 to extend the runway for a possible transfer to NATO. The transfer to NATO was never realised, however, and the airport continued in civil use, the school was responsible for the training of all aviation fire crews for British airfields as well as those of many overseas countries. From the outset, however, BAA and the British government planned to develop Stansted into Londons third airport, to relieve Heathrow, the airports first terminal building opened in 1969 and was expanded the next year to handle the growing number of passengers. The current terminal building was designed by architect Norman Foster, construction was undertaken by John Laing and took place between 1988 and March 1991, costing £100 million. In 1990 it was awarded the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Award, continental Airlines also operated services in the late 1990s from Newark, but this service was stopped shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks. Long-haul services to the USA returned in late 2005, when Eos Airlines, in 2006, MAXjet expanded their service with flights to Washington, D. C. American Airlines began daily flights to Stansted in October 2007 from New York–JFK and was expected to operate a second daily flight from April 2008
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Essex
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Essex /ˈɛsᵻks/ is a county in England immediately north-east of London. It borders the counties of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, the county town is Chelmsford, which is the only city in the county. Essex occupies the part of the old Kingdom of Essex, before this. As well as areas, the county also includes London Stansted Airport, the new towns of Basildon and Harlow, Lakeside Shopping Centre, the port of Tilbury. Originally recorded in AD527, Essex occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating all of what later became Middlesex and its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lea. In changes before the Norman conquest the East Saxons were subsumed into the Kingdom of England and, following the Norman conquest, Essex became a county. During the medieval period, much of the area was designated a Royal forest, including the county in a period to 1204. Gradually, the subject to forest law diminished, but at various times included the forests of Becontree, Chelmsford, Epping, Hatfield, Ongar. County-wide administration Essex County Council was formed in 1889, however County Boroughs of West Ham, Southend-on-Sea and East Ham formed part of the county but were unitary authorities. 12 boroughs and districts provide more localised services such as rubbish and recycling collections, leisure and planning, parish-level administration – changes A few Essex parishes have been transferred to other counties. Before 1889, small areas were transferred to Hertfordshire near Bishops Stortford, Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the South East England region. Two unitary authorities In 1998 the boroughs of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock were granted autonomy from the county of Essex after successful requests to become unitary authorities. Essex Police covers the county and the two unitary authorities. The county council chamber and main headquarters is at the County Hall in Chelmsford, before 1938 the council regularly met in London near Moorgate, which with significant parts closer to that point and the dominance of railways had been more convenient than any place in the county. It currently has 75 elected councillors, before 1965, the number of councillors reached over 100. The highest point of the county of Essex is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, close to the Hertfordshire border, the pattern of settlement in the county is diverse. Epping Forest also acts as a barrier to the further spread of London. Part of the southeast of the county, already containing the population centres of Basildon, Southend and Thurrock, is within the Thames Gateway
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Luton Airport
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In 2016, over 14.6 million passengers passed through the airport, a record total for Luton making it the fifth busiest airport in the UK. It is the fourth-largest airport serving the London area after Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, the airport serves as a base for EasyJet, Monarch, Thomson Airways, Ryanair and Wizz Air. The vast majority of the routes served are within Europe, although there are some charter and scheduled routes to destinations in Northern Africa, the airport is 2 mi from Junction 10 of the M1 motorway. In 2016 Luton Airport handled a record 14,551,837 million passengers, an airport was opened on the site on 16 July 1938 by the Secretary of State for Air, Kingsley Wood. During World War II, it was a base for Royal Air Force fighters, percival Aircraft had its factory at the airport until the early 1960s. From the mid-1960s, executive aircraft have been based at the airport and these activities have grown and several executive jet operators and maintenance companies are now based at the airport, handling aircraft from all over the world. It became the base for charter airlines such as Autair, Euravia, Dan-Air. In 1972, Luton Airport was the most profitable airport in the country and it suffered a severe setback in August 1974 when major package holiday operator Clarksons and its in-house airline Court Line were liquidated. In the 1980s the airport was seeing a decline in customer numbers, the council responded to lobbying and focused again on developing the airport, first by operating the airport at arms length via an independent management team. As a result, necessary infrastructure work was undertaken, the original runways had been grass tracks 18/36 and 06/24, and then a concrete runway 08/26. By the end of the 80s, there was only one runway, the 18/36 grass runway had disappeared under a landfill, while 06/24 had effectively become a taxiway. To remain a viable airport it was necessary to update airfield services and this meant updating ILS, glidepath and localiser and removing the hump in the runway, even a six-foot person could not see one end of the runway from the other. During the course of work, the airport would re-open for flights during the day. While developing the infrastructure, various business partners were courted. The process envisaged a centre, an airport railway station. In 1990, the airport was renamed London Luton Airport to re-emphasise the airports proximity to the UK capital, in 1991, another setback occurred when Ryanair, which had flown from the airport to Ireland for a number of years, transferred its London operating base to Stansted. Later in the 90s, MyTravel Group began charter flights from the airport, using the Airtours brand and new low-cost scheduled flights from Debonair and EasyJet, the latter making Luton its base. AGI was a specialist airport management and development company owned by Lockheed Martin Corp. of USA
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Bedfordshire, England
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Bedfordshire is a county in the East of England. It is a county and a historic county, covered by three unitary authorities, Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, and Luton. Bedfordshire is bordered by Cambridgeshire to the east/northeast, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the east/southeast. It is the fourteenth most densely populated county of England, with half the population of the county living in the two largest built-up areas, Luton and the county town, Bedford. The highest elevation point is 243 metres on Dunstable Downs in the Chilterns, the traditional nickname for people from Bedfordshire is Clangers, deriving from a local dish comprising a suet crust pastry filled with meat in one end and jam in the other. The first recorded use of the name in 1011 was Bedanfordscir, meaning the shire or county of Bedford, which itself means Bedas ford. Bedfordshire was historically divided into nine hundreds, Barford, Biggleswade, Clifton, Flitt, Manshead, Redbournestoke, Stodden, Willey, Wixamtree, along with the liberty and borough of Bedford. There have been changes to the county boundary, for example, in 1897 Kensworth. The southern end of the county is on the ridge known as the Chiltern Hills. The remainder is part of the drainage basin of the River Great Ouse. Most of Bedfordshires rocks are clays and sandstones from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, local clay has been used for brick-making of Fletton style bricks in the Marston Vale. The Greensand Ridge is an escarpment across the county from near Leighton Buzzard to near Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire is relatively dry, being situated in the east of England. Average annual rainfall is 597.6 millimetres at Bedford, october is the wettest month with 62.5 millimetres, February the driest with 36.7 millimetres. While there is little difference from month to month there are more wet days in autumn and winter but often heavier individual falls in spring and summer, of note were the 1998 Easter floods. Average temperatures in Bedford range from a low of 0.8 °C overnight in February to a high of 22.1 °C during the day in July, in the last 20 years the highest temperature recorded was 35.9 °C. The lowest temperature on record in Bedfordshire is −20.6 °C at Woburn on 25 February 1947, the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner is Kathryn Holloway who is a member of the Conservative Party. For local government purposes, Bedfordshire is divided into three authorities, the boroughs of Bedford and Luton, and the District of Central Bedfordshire. Bedfordshire County Council was abolished on 1 April 2009, although the three continue to form a county for ceremonial functions such as lieutenancy and High Sheriff
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Birmingham Airport
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It has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. Passenger throughput in 2016 was over 11.6 million, making Birmingham the seventh busiest UK airport, the airport offers both domestic flights within the UK, and international flights to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, North America and the Caribbean. Birmingham Airport is a base for BMI Regional, Flybe, Jet2. com, Monarch, Ryanair, Thomas Cook Airlines. Birmingham Airport is 5.5 NM east-south-east of Birmingham city centre and it is connected by the elevated AirRail Link with Birmingham International railway station on the West Coast Main Line. The relatively short north-east – south-west runway is not operational, and has incorporated into the taxiway for aircraft departing the end of runway 33. In 1928, the Birmingham City Council decided that the city required a municipal airport, Plans were submitted in 1933, identifying Elmdon as the site for the airport, delayed by the Great Depression. On 8 July 1939 the Duchess of Kent, Princess Marina of Greece, the airport was owned and operated by Birmingham City Council. Initial services flew to Croydon, Glasgow, Liverpool, Ryde, Shoreham, Manchester and Southampton. During World War II the airport was requisitioned by the Air Ministry and was used by the RAF and the Royal Navy as RAF Elmdon, an Elementary Flying School and a base for the Fleet Air Arm. During this time, the grass strip was replaced by two hard runways, 06/24 at 2,469 feet and 15/33 at 4,170 feet. Avro Lancaster and Stirling bombers manufactured at the Austin Aero Companys shadow factory at Cofton Hackett could not take off from the runways at Longbridge. Instead they were transported by road, minus the wings that would be attached at Elmdon and they were test flown from the aerodrome, and once declared airworthy they were flown to their operational units. On 8 July 1948, the returned to civilian use. During the post-war years, public events, such as air fairs,1961, An additional terminal building to handle international traffic was opened, called The International Building. 1967, The main runway was extended to 7,400 feet to allow jet operations,1984, Opening of the Maglev rail link train between the airport terminal and nearby railway station. 1993, The Government limited public sector borrowing and this meant that the airport could only expand by using private sector finance. 51% of the local council shares were sold to restructure the airport into a private sector company,1995, Closure of the Maglev rail link after 11 years, following a string of breakdowns. 20 October 2003, The Concorde made her final visit to Birmingham Airport on as part of her farewell tour, November 2007, The airport published a master plan for its development up to 2030, called Towards 2030, Planning a Sustainable Future for Air Transport in the Midlands
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Metropolitan Borough of Solihull
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The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands, in west-central England. It is named after its largest town, Solihull, from which Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is based, for Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS3 region and is one of seven boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the West Midlands NUTS2 region. Much of the residential population in the north of the borough centres on the communities of Castle Bromwich, Chelmsley Wood, Fordbridge, Kingshurst, Marston Green. In the south are the towns of Solihull and Shirley, Solihull probably derived its name from a miry or muddy or soily hill. The parish church was built on a hill of red marl. In 1894, Solihull was made into the Solihull Rural District in the county of Warwickshire, in 1932 some of its rural areas were taken away when the RDC was succeeded by Solihull Urban District Council. Expansion continued and Queen Elizabeth II granted a charter in 1954 making Solihull into a Municipal Borough, in 1986 the Solihull borough effectively became a unitary authority when the West Midlands County Council was abolished. It remains part of the West Midlands for ceremonial purposes, and for such as policing, fire. There is some support to return the borough to Warwickshire for ceremonial purposes, as was the case when the County of Avon was abolished and Bath was returned to Somerset. The borough is bordered by the M6 and the M40 and split by the M42 which divides the centre of the borough from the rural south. The boroughs transport links have led to a number of established large businesses being based in the borough, such as Land Rover, a short automatic light transport system links the airport to the nearby Birmingham International railway station. Around three-quarters of the borough is greenbelt and a proportion of that is worked farmland. The borough shares its boundaries with Birmingham to the west and north, Coventry to the east, the borough contains a sizeable rural area known as the Meriden Gap which serves as a green belt separating the Birmingham conurbation from the city of Coventry. Elections to the council are held in three out of four years, with one third of the 51 seats on the council being elected at each election. Since the 2011 election The Conservative Party has had a majority on the council, at the 2015 election to the council, the following members were returned, For election purposes the council is divided up into the following wards based on civil parishes. The Black Griffin is taken from the arms of the Earls of Aylesford, the Silver Fleur-de-lys comes from the Digby family, who were associated with Fordbridge. The Black Greyhound is taken from the arms of the Greswolds, analysis also shows Solihull as having the lowest claimant count for Jobseekers Allowance in the region. This is a chart of trend of gross value added of Solihull at current basic prices published by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling
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Newcastle Airport
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Newcastle International Airport is an international airport located near the main area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England,5 nautical miles north-west of the city centre. In 2016 it was the 11th busiest airport in the United Kingdom, Newcastle Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. The airport is owned by seven local authorities and AMP Capital, the seven local authorities are, City of Newcastle, City of Sunderland, Durham County Council, Gateshead MBC, North Tyneside MBC, Northumberland County Council and South Tyneside MBC. On 27 October 2012 Copenhagen Airport sold the stake in the airport to AMP Capital, the airport mainly serves the City of Newcastle, the greater Tyneside area, Northumberland and Wearside. The airport competes with the smaller Durham Tees Valley Airport for passengers travelling from and to County Durham, in terms of passenger numbers, Newcastle is the second largest airport in the North of England, after Manchester Airport. The Airport was opened on 26 July 1935 as Woolsington Aerodrome by the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Phillip Cunliffe-Lister, incorporating a clubhouse, hangar, workshops, fuel garage and grass runway, at the time it cost £35,000 to build. The 1960s saw tremendous growth in numbers at the airport. This was mainly due to British people taking foreign holidays to places such as Spain instead of holidaying within the UK, a new runway was built, along with an apron and a new air traffic control tower. These new additions were opened by the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, the 80s saw further investment in check-in, catering and duty-free shops. In 1991, Airport Metro station opened, connecting the airport with Newcastle city centre using the Tyne, in 2001 the SAS Group announced that an agreement had been concluded to increase its holding in Spanair from 49% to 74% of the shares. In August 2004 an extended and refurbished Departure Terminal was opened, the refurbishment comprised a 3,000 square metre extension which included new shops, cafes and 1,200 new waiting seats. In 2006 a record 5.4 million passengers used the Airport and this is partially due to difficulties obtaining departure and arrival slots for light aircraft traffic, which need to be separated from larger aircraft to protect against wake turbulence. As part of the Airport Master Plan, the area is to be expanded with maintenance facilities including new hangar. In August 2016, United Airlines announced it would discontinue its seasonal route from Newark to Newcastle in 2017, therefore, Newcastle Airport lost one of its two long-haul services. It also houses Freight Forwarding Agents such as, Camair, DHL, Kintetsu World Express, Kuehne & Nagel, Nippon Express, Schenker International, Davis Turner Air Cargo and Universal Forwarding. In April 2016 Emirates reported that Flown exports have soared to £310m a year since the arrival of the Emirates service from Newcastle to Dubai. The Dubai route contributes some £600m to the economy and has opened unlimited export avenues to North East firms, all cargo operations are based on the southern apron, including the Jet2737 aircraft which operates every night. It has its seats removed so it can carry mail to East Midlands and they are then replaced and it also houses West Atlantic and more
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Liverpool John Lennon Airport
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Liverpool John Lennon Airport is an international airport serving North West England. On the outbreak of World War II the airport was operated by the RAF, the airport is within the City of Liverpool on the banks of the estuary of the River Mersey some 6.5 nautical miles south east of the city centre. The airport is named after Liverpudlian musician John Lennon of The Beatles, scheduled domestic, European and North African services are operated from the airport. Between 1997 and 2007 the facility was one of Europes fastest growing airports, despite passenger numbers having decreased to just over 4.8 million in 2016, this was an 11. 1% increase on the 2015 total, making it the 12th busiest airport in the UK. The CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence Number is P735, that allows flights for the transport of passengers. The airport was opened in mid-1933. At the beginning of 1937 Liverpool City Council leased between 70 and 110 acres of their Speke Estate on a 999-year lease to the Air Ministry, the price included at all times the use of Speke Airport next to the shadow factory site. Erection of the building was planned to take 30 weeks and when complete it would provide employment for more than 5,000 people and it was to be managed by Rootes Securities on behalf of the Air Ministry. Work started Monday 15 February 1937, during World War II, Speke was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force and known as RAF Speke. Rootes built in a factory by the airport Bristol Blenheims and 1,070 Handley Page Halifax bombers. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation assembled many types of planes at the airport, including Hudsons and Mustang fighters, the airport was also home to the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit. On 8 October 1940, Speke was witness to what is thought to be the fastest air-to-air combat kill in the Battle of Britain, Flight Lieutenant Denys Gillam took off in his Hawker Hurricane from Speke to be confronted by a Junkers 88 passing across him. He shot the Junkers down while his undercarriage was still retracting, the moment has been caught in a painting by Robert Taylor called Fastest Victory. Normal civil airline operations resumed after VE-day and passengers increased from 50,000 in 1945 to 75,000 in 1948, remaining ahead of Manchester Airport. During the post war years Speke Airport hosted an annual Air Display in aid of the Soldiers, Sailors, and Air Force Association, the displays were immensely popular and attracted a huge crowd. He attempted to deploy his emergency parachute but it became entangled, the local newspaper headlined the story with The world has been robbed of a daring personality. Ironically, a few years earlier Valentin had been attributed with discovering the free-fall stable position still used by sports parachutists today for safe deployment, the city took over control of the airport on 1 January 1961 and prepared development plans. In 1966, a new 7,500 ft runway was opened by Prince Philip on a new site to the southeast of the existing airfield and it enabled the airport to be open for business around the clock and is in use to this day
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Bristol Airport
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Bristol Airport, located at Lulsgate Bottom in North Somerset, is the commercial airport serving the city of Bristol, England, and the surrounding area. It is 7 nautical miles southwest of Bristol city centre, built on the site of a former RAF airfield, it opened in 1957 as Bristol Airport, replacing Bristol Airport as Bristols municipal airport. From 1997 to 2010 it was known as Bristol International Airport, in 1997 a majority shareholding in the airport was sold to FirstGroup, and then in 2001 the airport was sold to a joint venture of Macquarie Group and others. In September 2014, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan bought out Macquarie to become the sole owner, in 2016, it was the ninth busiest airport in the United Kingdom, handling over 7.6 million passengers, a 12% increase compared with 2015. According to a 2012 passenger survey,25. 7% of journeys using the airport started or ended in the city of Bristol,18. 9% in Wales,18. 5% in Somerset and 12. 4% in Devon. Airlines with operating bases at the airport include EasyJet, Ryanair, Thomas Cook, Thomson Airways, the airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers and for flying instruction. In 1927 a group of businessmen raised £6,000 through public subscription to start the Bristol and Wessex Aeroplane Club. In 1929, Bristol Corporation took up the proposal to develop farmland located at Whitchurch, to the south of Bristol. On its opening by Prince George, Duke of Kent in 1930, passenger numbers grew to 4,000 by 1939. During World War II, Whitchurch was the civil airport remaining operational. The newly formed British Overseas Airways Corporation was transferred to Whitchurch from Croydon Airport, BOAC operated routes around the British Empire and to neutral nations, including the Bristol–Lisbon route which was operated by the Dutch airline KLM, under charter to BOAC. In September 1940, No 10 Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Weston-super-Mare established a Relief Landing Ground on 14 acres at Broadfield Down by the hamlet of Lulsgate Bottom, near Redhill. Being high, at 600 ft, the site had a weather record during warm front conditions. Few facilities were constructed although pillboxes, defensive guns and later two Blister hangars were added. In late 1940, a Starfish site was set up south of the village of Downside and its decoy fires attracted a large quantity of Luftwaffe high explosives and incendiaries on the nights of 16 March,3 April and 4 April 1941 during the Bristol Blitz. However, its use soon changed into being a satellite airfield for the fighter squadrons based at RAF Colerne. Originally, the new name was to be RAF Broadfield Down. The runways used the standard triangular pattern, the main, east-west runway was 3,891 ft long, with a designated alignment of 28/10, and the others were 3,300 ft aligned 21/03 and 3,294 ft aligned 34/16
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Cardiff Airport
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Cardiff Airport is by far the busiest airport in Wales and has been under the ownership of the Welsh Government since March 2013, operating at an arms length as a commercial business. The Airport serves customers in mainly South, but also Mid, the Airport is located in the village of Rhoose, Vale of Glamorgan,12 mi. On 27 March 2013, the Welsh Government announced it had purchased the Cardiff International Airport Ltd from TBI Ltd as a concern for £52,000,000. It will be managed at arms length from Government on a basis and, over time. Since 2013 Cardiff Airport has undergone a transformation with improvements made to the terminal, surrounding infrastructure, customer service standards. In June 2015 Europes largest regional airline Flybe opened a two aircraft base at Cardiff, the airline now operates a busy flight network of 16 direct routes across the UK & Europe to destinations including Faro, Jersey, Dublin, Glasgow, Berlin, Verona and Paris CDG. Construction work commenced in 1941, and the airfield began life on 7 April 1942 when it was taken over by No 53 Operational Training Unit. After WW2 the airfield fell into disuse and was abandoned, in 1951 Rees-Williams was appointed, briefly, Minister of Aviation and identified what he called a great need for a commercial Airport of international standards in South Wales. Rees-Williams thought diverting the river at Pengam would be a problem, the Welsh Civil Aviation Consultative Committee then proposed he should look at the abandoned Royal Air Force airfield at Rhoose as a possible alternative. On inspecting it Rees-Williams found it in a condition, with a large number of bombs stacked on the runways. However he considered Rhoose could be suitable for civil aviation if the necessary money, the Government accepted his proposal and the Ministry of Aviation promptly began converting the abandoned airfield into a civilian Airport. In October 1952 the new Rhoose Airport was opened by Rees-Williamss successor as Minister of Aviation Alan Lennox-Boyd, also in 1952 Aer Lingus started a service to Dublin. Civilian flights from the old Cardiff Municipal Airport at Pengam Moors were transferred to Rhoose on 1 April 1954, a new terminal building followed, along with flights to France, Belfast and Cork. An escalation in holiday charter business resulted in passenger throughout exceeding 100,000 in 1962, on 1 April 1965 the Ministry of Aviation handed over the Airport to Glamorgan County Council and it was renamed Glamorgan Airport. The council started a plan to develop the Airport including a new control tower, terminal building. In the 1970s, the supersonic airliner Concorde made a few flights into the Airport on special occasions and these were limited by the length of the runway, meaning it could only land lightly loaded, and only take off without passengers and with a minimal fuel load. In the 1980s, its name was changed to Cardiff-Wales Airport,1986 saw a further extension of 750 ft to the runway, costing in the region of £1 million, thus attracting more business to the Airport in the form of new-generation jet aircraft. Development of transatlantic links were made with flights to Florida
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Edinburgh Airport
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Edinburgh Airport is an airport located in the Ingliston area of the City of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2016, handling over 12.3 million passengers in that year and it was also the sixth busiest airport in the UK by total passengers in 2016. It is located 5 nautical miles west of the city centre, just off the M8 and it is owned and operated by Global Infrastructure Partners, who are also the majority shareholder and leads the management of Gatwick Airport. The airport has two runways and one terminal, and employs about 2,500 people. Turnhouse Aerodrome was the most northerly British air defence base in World War I used by the Royal Flying Corps. The small base opened in 1916 and it was used to house the 603 Squadron from 1925, which consisted of DH 9As, Westland Wapitis, Hawker Harts, all the aircraft used a grass air strip. In 1918 the Royal Air Force was formed and the airfield was named RAF Turnhouse, when the Second World War broke out, RAF Fighter Command took control over the airfield and a runway of 3,900 ft was paved to handle the Supermarine Spitfire. During the Battle of Britain, No.3 Squadron RAF3,65, when the war ended the airfield remained under military control, but by the late 1940s the first commercial services were launched. In 1947, British European Airways started a service between Edinburgh and London using Vickers Vikings followed by the Viscount and Vanguard series. In 1952 the runway was extended to 6000 ft to handle the Vampire FB5s operated by the based 603 Squadron, in 1956 a new passenger terminal was built to provide an improved commercial service, five years later it was extended. After the disbandment of 603 Squadron in March 1957, the Ministry of Defence transferred ownership to the Ministry of Aviation in 1960 to offer improved commercial service to the airport. Flying was temporarily diverted to East Fortune, which had its runway extended to accommodate the airliners of the period. The British Airports Authority took over ownership of the airport on 1 April 1971 at a time when the terminal building was running at about eight times its design capacity. A public consultation on planning started in November 1971 and ended in February 1972, initial stages of the redevelopment began in June 1973, they included a diversion of the River Almond. This runway, completed in 1977, is 2,556 m in length, a new terminal was built alongside the runway to cater for the additional traffic. The old terminal and hangars were converted into a cargo centre, international service from Edinburgh began in 1962 with a direct service to Dublin, but for many years international flights were charter and private only. This started to change during the late 1970s, with services to continental Europe. RAF Turnhouse was operational near the terminal of the airport for all of the post war period
40.
Belfast International Airport
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Belfast International Airport is an airport 11.5 NM northwest of Belfast in Northern Ireland. It was formerly known and is referred to as Aldergrove Airport, after the nearby village of Aldergrove. Over 5.1 million passengers travelled through the airport in 2016, Belfast International has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. The airport lies within the parish of Killead, between the villages of Killead and Aldergrove. The site for the airport was established in 1917 when it was selected to be a Royal Flying Corps training establishment during the First World War, the airport remained open at the end of the war for RAF activity. Civil traffic began in 1922 when flights were conducted flying newspapers from Chester, the flight was to Glasgow and was operated by Midland and Scottish Air Ferries. This was subsequently augmented by flights to the Isle of Man, Liverpool and Croydon, during the Second World War, Aldergrove remained an RAF station particularly for the Coastal Command. One of the outcomes of the airfield construction programme was the building of Nutts Corner Airport. On 1 December 1946, the new site replaced Belfast Harbour Airport as Northern Ireland’s civil airport, by the 1950s civil air traffic had outstripped the facilities at Nutts Corner and, in addition, aircraft were being regularly diverted to Aldergrove because of adverse weather conditions. In July 1959 the decision was made to move civil flights to Aldergrove to take advantage of the large airfield, a new terminal and apron were built with the necessary passenger facilities and the complex was opened by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother on 28 October 1963. In 1966 the first regular jet service to London–Gatwick started and in 1968 Aer Lingus and BOAC introduced scheduled services to New York City via Shannon, in 1971 Northern Ireland Airports Limited was formed to operate and develop the airport and its facilities. A major programme of upgrades was undertaken resulting in improvements to runways, taxiways. A new International Pier was built together with facilities and car parks. In the meantime, British Airways launched the first Belfast to Heathrow shuttle service, the first scheduled service to a European city was started by NLM Cityhopper flying to Amsterdam. In 1985 passenger numbers reached 1.5 million and BMI went into competition with British Airways on the Heathrow service, further developments to the terminal occurred throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. A new Executive Aviation Terminal was opened in 1987 and the new centre opened in 1991. The airport was privatised in 1994, TBI became the new owners of the airport on 13 August 1996, by which time annual passenger numbers had reached 2.5 million. In 1998 Easyjet started operations from the airport with flights to London Luton, in 2005 Continental Airlines launched the first ever nonstop scheduled service to Newark, which continued to operate under the United Airlines brand until being halted in January 2017
41.
EasyJet
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EasyJet is a British airline, operating under the low-cost carrier model, based at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on over 820 routes in more than 30 countries, EasyJet plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index. EasyGroup Holdings Ltd is the largest shareholder with a 34. 62% stake and it employs nearly 11,000 people, based throughout Europe but mainly in the UK. EasyJet has seen expansion since its establishment in 1995, having grown through a combination of acquisitions, the airline, along with associate company easyJet Switzerland, operates more than 200 aircraft, mostly Airbus A319. It has 28 bases across Europe, the largest being Gatwick, in 2014 the airline carried more than 65 million passengers, making it the second-largest airline in Europe by number of passengers carried, behind Ryanair. EasyJet was featured in the television series Airline broadcast on ITV which followed the operations at London Luton. In November 2016, ITN Productions announced a new TV series to be broadcast on ITV in 2017 exploring what it takes to become a pilot at the airline. The current working title of the series is easyJet, Inside the Cockpit and will feature unprecedented access to the pilot training scheme using unique. The airline was established in 1995, the first company in what would become the easyGroup conglomerate. It was launched by Greek Cypriot businessman Stelios Haji-Ioannou with two wet leased Boeing 737-200 aircraft, initially operating two routes, London Luton Airport to Glasgow and Edinburgh. In April 1996, the first wholly owned aircraft was delivered to the airline, enabling its first international route, until October 1997, the aircraft were operated by GB Airways and subsequently by Air Foyle, as easyJet had not yet received its Air Operators Certificate. EasyJet was floated on the London Stock Exchange on 5 November 2000, in October 2004 the FL Group, owner of the airlines Icelandair and Sterling, purchased an 8. 4% stake in the airline. Over the course of 2005, FL increased its share in the company periodically to 16. 9%, however, in April 2006 the threat of takeover receded as FL sold its stake for €325 million, securing a profit of €140m on its investment. In November 2005, Ray Webster stood down after 10 years as executive officer and was replaced by former RAC plc CEO. EasyJet has expanded since its establishment, driven by demand from both the United Kingdom and continental Europe, as part of this, the airline has also purchased several rivals, including GB Airways. In March 1998, easyJet purchased a 40% stake in Swiss charter airline TEA Basle for three million Swiss francs, the airline was renamed easyJet Switzerland and commenced franchise services on 1 April 1999, having relocated its headquarters to Geneva International Airport. This was easyJets first new base outside the United Kingdom, in 2002, rival airline Go Fly was purchased for £374 million, the airline inherited three new bases from Go, at Bristol Airport, East Midlands Airport and London Stansted Airport. The acquisition of Go almost doubled the number of Boeing 737-300 aircraft in the easyJet fleet, in 2002, the airline opened its base at Gatwick Airport, and between 2003 and 2007 opened bases in Germany, France, Italy and Spain, establishing a presence in continental Europe
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British Airways
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British Airways, often shortened to BA, is the flag carrier and the largest airline in the United Kingdom based on fleet size. When measured by passengers carried, it is second-largest in the United Kingdom behind easyJet, the airline is based in Waterside near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. On 31 March 1974, all four companies were merged to form British Airways, after almost 13 years as a state company, British Airways was privatised in February 1987 as part of a wider privatisation plan by the Conservative government. The carrier soon expanded with the acquisition of British Caledonian in 1987, followed by Dan-Air in 1992, British Airways is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance, along with American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and the now defunct Canadian Airlines. The alliance has since grown to become the third-largest, after SkyTeam, IAG is listed on the London Stock Exchange and in the FTSE100 Index. A long-time Boeing customer, British Airways ordered 59 Airbus A320 family aircraft in August 1998, in 2007 it purchased 12 Airbus A380s and 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, marking the start of its long-haul fleet replacement. The centrepiece of the airlines fleet is the Boeing 777. British Airways is the largest operator of the Boeing 747-400, with 51 registered to the airline, on 1 September 1972 the management service functions of both BOAC and BEA were combined under the newly formed British Airways Group. British Airways was established as an airline on 31 March 1974 by the dissolution of BOAC, British Airways and Air France operated the supersonic airliner Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde, and the worlds first supersonic passenger service flew in January 1976 from London Heathrow to Bahrain. Services to the US began on 24 May 1976 with a flight to Washington Dulles airport, service to Singapore was established in co-operation with Singapore Airlines as a continuation of the flight to Bahrain. The final commercial Concorde flight was BA002 from New York JFK to London Heathrow on 24 October 2003, in 1981 the airline was instructed to prepare for privatisation by the Conservative Thatcher government. Sir John King, later Lord King, was appointed chairman, while many other large airlines struggled, King was credited with transforming British Airways into one of the most profitable air carriers in the world. The flag carrier was privatised and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in February 1987, British Airways effected the takeover of the UKs second airline, British Caledonian, in July of that same year. The formation of Richard Bransons Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1984 created a competitor for BA and this campaign included allegations of poaching Virgin Atlantic customers, tampering with private files belonging to Virgin and undermining Virgins reputation in the City. As a result of the case BA management apologised unreservedly, Lord King stepped down as chairman in 1993 and was replaced by his deputy, Colin Marshall, while Bob Ayling took over as CEO. Virgin filed an action in the US that same year regarding BAs domination of the trans-Atlantic routes. In 1992 British Airways expanded through the acquisition of the financially troubled Dan-Air, British Asia Airways, a subsidiary based in Taiwan, was formed in March 1993 to operate between London and Taipei. That same month BA purchased a 25% stake in the Australian airline Qantas and, with the acquisition of Brymon Airways in May, in September 1998, British Airways, along with American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and Canadian Airlines, formed the Oneworld airline alliance
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Flybe
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Flybe is the largest independent regional airline in Europe, based in Exeter, operating more UK domestic flights than any other airline. It flies 7 million passengers a year on 149 routes, from 62 destinations in 9 countries, connecting to hubs in Manchester, Birmingham, Paris, Dublin. It is a member of the European Regions Airline Association, Flybes parent company Flybe Group PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The airline launched in 1979 as Jersey European Airways following the merger of Intra Airways, in 1983 the airline was sold to Walker Steel Group, which also owned Spacegrand Aviation, and the two airlines were merged under the Jersey European name in 1985. Jersey European was renamed British European in 2000, and received its current name in 2002, the two airlines were then run separately, with partially shared management, until 1985 when they amalgamated under the Jersey European name, with the airlines headquarters moving to Exeter. The airline became British European in June 2000, shortening this title to Flybe on 18 July 2002 and repositioning itself as a full-service, on 3 November 2006 it was announced that Flybe would buy BA Connect, except for that airlines services out of London City Airport. The takeover was complete in March 2007, the expanded airlines owners were Rosedale Aviation Holdings, Flybe staff and – as a result of the BA Connect takeover – International Airlines Group. The acquisition increased Flybes route network in both the UK and continental Europe, making Flybe Europes largest regional airline, the agreement would see Loganair aircraft flying in Flybe colours on 55 routes from Scotland. In 2008, in order to avoid losing a £280,000 rebate from Norwich Airport, as a result, the environmental group Friends of the Earth called on the government to launch an investigation into the aviation industry. Chief Executive Officer Jim French was recognised in the 2009 Queens Birthday Honours List with a CBE for his services to the airline industry, on 10 December 2010, Flybe floated an IPO on the London Stock Exchange, with trading in shares commencing on the same day. Full public release of shares followed on 15 December 2010, the share price was set at 295p, valuing the company at approximately £215 million, and raising £66 million for the company, half of which was to pay for fleet expansion. On 23 May 2013, it was reported that Flybe had sold its slots at Gatwick airport to Easyjet for £20m, and that the slots would be handed over to Easyjet on 29 March 2014. CEO and Chairman Jim French retired in August 2013, leaving the post of CEO to Saad Hammad, formerly of EasyJet airline, by November 2013, Hammad had shaken up the operation, requesting the resignations of three top managers within six weeks of his arrival. Out of 158 routes flown at the time, over 60 did not cover their operating expenses. On 23 April 2014, Flybe announced that it will launch domestic, the airline is expecting to carry around 500,000 passengers a year, with all 5 allocated aircraft being based around the Flybe network overnight. In March 2014, it was announced that Flybe would undergo a brand refresh. This new scheme included a new aircraft livery and new interior features. British Airways sold most of its stake in the airline in June 2014
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3.9%
6.5%
This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html.
