Heathrow City Logistics – An emerging logistic strategy for Heathrow Airport

With nearly 70 Million passengers each year and over 70 thousand staff, it could be said that Heathrow is more like a city than an Airport. The scale and complexity of managing the logistic flows both into and out of Heathrow is a major challenge and it is true to say that, apart from a surface access strategy focused on passenger flows, there is much more work to be done on developing a full understanding of the full ground dynamics of the airport.

In recognition of this, BAA Heathrow is developing a concept known as Heathrow City Logistics (HCL), to address the wider logistic aspects of running the world’s busiest international airport. Following a launch conference held on 1 March 2007, we are now working with our suppliers and partners at the airport, to develop opportunities that allow closer logistic cooperation and alignment of logistic strategies.

The benefits are clear. If working together reduces redundancy and wasted movement, financial savings must be possible so why would organisations not be interested in greater logistic cooperation? One of the outcomes of greater cooperation is likely to be reduced vehicle movements into and around the airport. This will help reduce congestion and travel to, from and around the airport – a worthwhile service improvement to our customers – the passenger. Reduced vehicle movements will also reduce emissions, at a time when environmental performance is moving up all corporate agendas.

Located adjacent to both the M25 and the M4, Heathrow needs to play its part in reducing vehicle emissions. Fewer vehicle movements will deliver this. Finally, if Heathrow’s environmental impact is not carefully managed, our licence to grow will be constrained. Growth for Heathrow is good for the UK and good for all commercial partners, so logistic cooperation now makes strategic sense.

Already, with regard to flows into and out of the airport, a number of key themes are emerging. These include:

• Greater Consolidation – Combining goods and freight into fewer vehicles, thereby reducing vehicle movements and redundant capacity should reduce costs and ease congestion
• Move Off Site – Processing goods and consolidation away from the immediate airport environment will reduce further movements around Heathrow and reduce logistic footprints in the central terminal area
• Greater Information and Control – Understanding more about goods movements around the airport by introducing controls, particularly for vehicle movements airside, that will smooth and regulate goods vehicle flows into Heathrow

Early examples of this element of the HCL Strategy include:

• BAA Heathrow Retail Consolidation Centre. This consolidation centre, based in Stockley Park to the north of the M4, consolidates all retail goods coming into Heathrow. Consolidation is currently achieving a 74% reduction in the number of retail journeys into the airport. The centre has been operational for 4 years and is jointly funded by BAA and our retail partners. It is operated on our behalf by DHL. We have recently awarded a further contract to DHL to manage deliveries into Terminal 5 and this is the first step to developing single, end to end solutions for all retail deliveries
• Construction Logistic Centre. This centre, located at Colnbrook, was established originally to support the construction of Terminal 5. Its remit has now expanded, to support all construction activity at Heathrow. All construction traffic entering Heathrow is controlled from this centre and loads entering the central terminal area are consolidated. Deliveries are allocated by a system called AIRBUILD which involves booking slots over the internet prior to arrival
• Off Site Screening of Goods. As a result of a new requirement to screen fully all goods entering the restricted zone, we are investigating the development of an off site screening facility that will control access to control posts, introduce consolidation and establish greater visibility of traffic flows airside. We plan to introduce an interim capability in the New Year. The facility will be run on BAA’s behalf by Wilson James

These are not the only examples where the airport community works together. The Hotel Hoppa service around Heathrow is an early example of cooperative working.

The successful delivery of the HCL strategy is dependent on the close cooperation of all commercial partners and suppliers. BAA Retail and CAPITAL construction have led the way and shown the art of the possible. We are determined to expand these initiatives throughout the airport, in order to better understand the end to end processes involved in order to deliver the benefits outlined above.

The HCL conference identified the airlines as the next major group potential partners. Options currently being investigated include:

• Centralised Crew Preparation and Briefing. British Airways currently prepare and brief their aircrew centrally in the Compass Centre before they enter the airport through an airside control post. We are examining, with the Airline Operators Committee, opportunities to conduct similar off site crew briefing with other airlines. Our challenge will be to develop a supply solution that encourages demand
• Staff Coaching. BAA Heathrow and our airline partners, operate extensive staff coaching operations. Working together to remove surplus capacity and redundancy would seem to make sense. There are clear operational priorities to be met, but modern technologies such as GPS tracking and RFID technology can be used to ensure certainty and predictability of performance

The first step for BAA Heathrow is to get our own house in order. This will entail consolidating and simplifying all logistic third party contracts, for example passenger and staff coaching contracts. This will be followed by proposals to airline partners, to consolidate further across the airport in order to increase efficiency and save money, while maintaining service standards and reducing emission levels.

In parallel with this work, we are looking again at how we meet the need to get goods and vehicles airside, in order to support our operations. Our network of airside control posts has grown over the years to meet incremental increases in demand. New security processes, the opening of Terminal 5 and the volume of planned construction work at Heathrow over the next few years, suggest that a more comprehensive review is worthwhile. Therefore, as part of HCL, we are developing a new strategy for control posts that will deliver certainty and predictability in flows airside. Initiatives such as booking and tracking will be examined, in order to control and understand better logistic activities airside.

In summary, there are clear financial, service and environmental benefits to be gained by BAA and its partners and suppliers aligning their logistic strategies in and around Heathrow. BAA Heathrow wishes to act as a catalyst for change, to lead the development of a Heathrow City Logistics strategy, in order to unlock those benefits. This will inevitably be an incremental and evolutionary strategy, but the examples above illustrate the opportunity.

About the author

Shaun Cowlam was appointed Director, Logistics, Heathrow Airport Limited in January 2007. In this role he is responsible for all BAA logistic activities at Heathrow. Prior to this he was the Head of Site and Logistics for the Terminal 5 Project.

He joined BAA in January 2006 following a career in the British Army, the highlight of which was command of a Logistic Brigade from 2001 to 2003. During this period he was responsible for deployed logistic support to operations in Afghanistan in 2002 and during the War in Iraq in 2003. As a result he was appointed CBE in 2003.