Heathrow Terminal 4 was a ghost town when we returned from London to New York last Sunday. Also, all of the Team PSFK reported that their flights to the UK and back were almost empty. People aren’t flying – as we have heard. But the silence at this airport reminded us of the knock on effect it has on so many other people’s livelihoods.
A search of Google News reveals a story in the Financial Times where one retail holding company (Jones Lang LaSalle) has noted a 25% drop in sales. With the look of the footfall in this picture, we wonder if that figure isn’t really the true figure. In fact book store Borders has been forced to close all its airport stores as they weren’t able to re-negotiate their rent to a better deal.
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Just out of curiosity, what time of day was the photo taken?
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Yeah – sorry, I should have said that. It was about 3pm – just as we were on our way to catch the 3.50 Continental flight to EWR.
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I was at Heathrow Terminal 3 on Sunday morning (~10am) flying back to LA and the terminal and plane (Virgin Atlantic) were both full and busy.
February 4th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Ha! Maybe no one wants to go to cold NYC! You lucky LA people, you….
February 4th, 2009 at 12:49 pm