Airline boss slams "outdated" Heathrow

The head of one of the world's leading airlines has unloaded on London's Heathrow Airport, saying it is not fit for purpose.

Emirates Airlines chief Sir Tim Clarke described Britain's busiest airport as a “Second World War” era facility, industry portal Travel Mole reports.

Heathrow opened just after the end of the war in 1946 and Clark says Terminal 3, where Emirates is based, is looking outdated and showing its age.

It "looks like a utilitarian structure, post-Second World War" he said at the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA’s) annual meeting in Dubai.

He said any new owner of Heathrow must be prepared to invest.

Heathrow is "seriously lagging behind" airports in the Middle East and Asia for customer service innovations, he added.

“New airports are built employing the latest tech to streamline their processes, whether it be security, check in, immigration or whatever.

“I’m hoping that the new owners will get that but airports worldwide are not famous for spending money.”

Flyers are more into Vegan food than ever before

People wanting Vegan dishes used to be seen as quirky, sometimes as a nuisance.

Now plant-based menus are mainstream with an increasing number of people shunning meat.

Emirates Airlines said it has noted an annual surge of 40% in customer demand for plant-based meals.

To meet this demand in 2024, Emirates will introduce an array of new Vegan dishes onboard and in lounges, adding even more dishes to its ‘vegan vault’ of more than 300 curated plant-based recipes.

In 2023, Emirates had more than 300 vegan recipes in rotation across 140 destinations, up from 180 recipes in 2022.

The airline says Vegan meal consumption has grown 40% year on year in line with passenger volumes, but in some regions, consumption has exceeded passenger volume growth - such as Africa with an additional 4% increase,

South-east Asia had an additional 5% increase, with the Middle East showing a significant additional increase of 34%.

The airline said the biggest increase in consumption of vegan meals occurred in economy class and particularly on Emirates routes to China, Japan and Philippines.

Emirates has been serving Vegan meals since the 1990s, initially focusing on specific routes such as Addis Ababa, where Vegan meals are required during certain times of the year by those practising the Ethiopian Orthodox faith, or across regions where multiple faiths encourage a plant-based diet.

Over recent years however, Vegan dishes have been rapidly gaining popularity on US, Australian, some European and Asian routes.

Image: Business class Vegan kebabs