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Heathrow set to brighten up

Heathrow set to brighten up

Heathrow set to brighten up

Following complaints from passengers, Heathrow Airport will hire a team of high wire walkers to change the 120 feet high light bulbs which sit along the ceiling. According to Vicki O’Brien, head of the Customer Service at British Airways, the huge bulb replacement task will cost several million and take approximately 4 months to complete.

Of the 120,000 light bulbs currently installed at Terminal 5 only 40% work while the other 60% have blown and not been changed since 2008. According to O’Brien they have been faced with no viable way to replace them. Various methods on how to replace the bulbs, such as high level cherry pickers and gondolas, however none of these options were deemed ‘safe or practical’.

Following months of discussion, the airport have come up with a solution that would be a ‘safe and robust way to replace all of the light bulbs’ using a specialist high level rope company that works on a ‘cirque du Soleil style’.

According to a spokesman for Heathrow, the airport have planned to change the current light bulbs with environmentally friendly LED bulbs which will last up to 5 years. He said, “Contingency lighting has been used on the concourse while a viable and safe solution of replacing the lights was being agreed.”

Following complaints from members of staff saying the work lighting wasn’t bright enough for viewing documents at their workstations, the airport is also planning on replacing the terminal’s ‘task light’. Heathrow’s Terminal 5 currently has the world’s largest controlled lighting system installed, which features 2,600 sensors designed to automatically switch off when no motion has been detected.

Earlier this year, Terminal 5 was named the best airport terminal building in the World Airport Awards, which was organised by an aviation research organisation called Skytrax despite a few issues which occurred when it opened in 2008.