After his disrupted return from hols back in August, Mayor Johnson vowed to investigate alternatives to our existing London airport situation given the regular breakdowns the big 2 experience, strident opposition to Heathrow expansion and stalling on City Airport's expansion plans. As good as his word, he really is considering the pros and cons of a Thames Estuary airport. More productively, he's calling on government to commission a feasibility study into it as they're......

Flight fashion: it’s such a minefield of tricky choices to be navigated with the utmost care. You want comfort, as it’s unlikely to be found on the plane itself. You want something non-restricting should you be required to brawl. You want something that bespeaks a certain sophistication so that those greeting you upon arrival will marvel at your transformation. You want something that says, “Mr DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” After much deliberation,......

The first landing on T5's smooth, new runway must surely be a momentous occasion. After all, it's not only got a snappy 21st century moniker but a spanking new art work, controversial fingerprinting technology and purple halls and stripy seats. Special. But, with a complete lack of foresight, T5 missed out on the first London touch down of the infamous double decker jumbo the A380 last week. Dang. Instead, its chosen publicity stunt is......

Her Maj has cut the ribbon on Heathrow's Terminal 5. The £4.3 billion node, designed by Richard Rogers, opens for non-Royal business on 27 March. The BBC has all the facts and figures you could ever need. Rather than repeat them, with added quips, we'll simply point you in the direction of our sneak preview and leave you with a few images of this immense addition to London's international transport network.......

Protesters have this morning scaled atop the roof of the Houses of Parliament in protest at the planned expansion of Heathrow Airport. Just days after a similar protest at the airport itself, the five activists, from airline campaign group Plane Stupid, gained access via a fire escape, having got into the building on visitor passes, and unfurled a series of banners, one of which read "No 3rd runway at Heathrow", another "BAA Headquarters". For......

This Londonista popped to Terminal 5 at Heathrow - due to open in a month's time - and live-blogged about it: It's 7.35am on a grey Saturday morning, and I'm on the piccadilly line. Sure - there are better things to do with my time, but I'm off to be a fake passenger and so to have a nosey around a new iconic building that swishly calls itself 'T5'. It's almost an airport in......

After recent revelatory reports that constant night time aircraft noise is actually rather annoying and not very good for you in the long term comes the news today that flight paths in and out of Heathrow, Luton and Stansted are to be reviewed. Sounds a bit alarming to Londonist – one of the proposals involves leaving the airplanes higher up for longer, and then bringing them down a bit sharpish. Er? Not on our next......

It's only slightly further away from central London than Stansted. Plans exist to link it by rail to the Capital, and it could be a partial solution to the congestion problems caused by the continued rise in air passengers to and from London. All Southend Airport needs now is a new owner willing to take up this development challenge. The current owner, Regional Airports Ltd, says the site is ideal due to the government's......

The Guinness Book of Records names London’s Lyle’s Golden Syrup the world’s oldest branded anything. We love him dearly, but God forbid that Beckham ever gets the urge to go into politics. EVEN MORE private records stray. Anarchy rules. Strange magnetic fields affect London City Airport. We just love Dean Koontz. It seems even London ZOO has to do a stock-check. Farewell Leicester Square - well, as you know it, anyway. Public consultation on......

33. Big Cat Round Up 2007 was a record year for my own research into ‘big cat’ sightings – www.kentbigcats.blogspot.com – although London and the infamous ‘beast of Bexley’ was reasonably quiet, this proved to me that such animals had wider territories. In January a black leopard was seen at Bexley by a Miss Skinner as she walked her dog. The massive cat sped across a field. A few days later, two yellowy-green eyes......

This is what we have learnt this weekend whilst you have been making your mince pies: The tube link to Heathrow Airport is celebrating its 30th birthday. Spicing up Christmas - they’re back and better than ever. Apparently. Appalling teenage violence continues. Perhaps they should all be kept indoors from the ages of 12-19. The Savoy Hotel has closed for a facelift. As one does when one reaches a certain age. ‘Cept this one......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 26th November 1983: An armed robbery at the Brinks Mat warehouse near Heathrow Airport becomes the largest heist in British history, as £25 million worth of gold bullion is pinched. Tuesday – 27th November 2000: 10-year-old schoolboy Damilola Taylor is stabbed in the leg and dies in Peckham, south London. The following six years would see several trials and re-trials over the killing, finally culminating in the......

Heathrow Airport: to expand or not to expand, that is the question. The debate can begin in earnest, as today Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly laid out options for consultation, including a potential third runway and sixth terminal. With Terminal 5 not even finished yet, it may seem premature to be discussing more construction work, but the Government stressed that it would take until 2020 for a new runway and terminal to be operational. Kelly......

Huge clouds of smoke can be seen over Bow, east London, visible from as far as Queen's Park. A disused warehouse on Waterden Road has caught fire and according to the news emerging right now, there are 15 fire engines and between 40 and 75 firefighters attending it. Waterden Road passes through the Olympic site and as you can imagine, people are anxious but remaining calm. The smoke cloud is drifting southwards towards Canary......

The world’s busiest international airport is also the world’s least favourite. Delays on the tarmac and in the terminals have led a survey of 2,500 travellers to vote Heathrow as their least favourite airport. The airport, currently operating beyond its intended capacity, has been slowed down by increased security checks and had kept passengers waiting for their baggage, and passengers have also complained that their luggage frequently goes missing. The BAA, who own Heathrow,......

That's right, the DLR has been going for, if you can believe it, 20 years today. This seems like forever for this Londonista's favourite mode of transport around London. So where did it all start? Well Londonist took a little light rail trip down memory lane. Way back in the 80s, it's hard to imagine but the Docklands were a no man's land in London. (No one came in, no one went out.) This......

Lily Allen’s bouncy song "Smile" has obviously had no effect on the meanest people on the planet: US Immigration Officials. The pop star, aged 22, was detained at Los Angeles International Airport for five hours while questioned about the caution she received in June for an alleged assault she committed in London. The bad news is that her work visa was revoked. The good news is that she was not strip searched, nor did......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 6th August 1937: Barbara Windsor is born in Shoreditch in central London. She would achieve fame as an actress, notably as a ‘saucy strumpet’ in the Carry On films of the 60s and 70s and later as a major character in Eastenders. Tuesday – 7th August 2001: The Department of Health pays £27 million for a private Harley Street heart hospital, re-nationalising it and bringing it into......

The Monument gets a facelift Potential flooding impact on London reassessed, as new film comes out Heathrow Airport has made Hounslow residents 'thick' Air raid siren plays whenever a traffic warden approaches Council's 'Robin Hood' goes to jail for breaking the rules to help people Image courtesy of pixelthing.com via the Londonist flickr group.......

BBC News24 are reporting the closure of Stansted Airport. The Essex airport was evacuated after the discovery of a suspicious package. Planes are still landing, but there will be no departures until the situation is resolved. Probably a false alarm, but we'll keep this post updated with any developments. Update: 10:30. The airport is now back to normal. It was indeed a false alarm.......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 11th June 1988: The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute (a.k.a. Mandela Day Concert) takes place at Wembley Stadium. On a scale approaching the Live Aid concert that took place some three years earlier, more than 600 million people worldwide tune in to watch the epic day-long concert featuring dozens of high profile bands protesting against the apartheid regime in South Africa and the ongoing incarceration of Nelson......

Heathrow is often a scrum of paparazzi and obsessed fans when a big star arrives, especially from a celeb-fest of a city like Los Angeles. No scrum was in evidence yesterday, however, as former uber-superstar Michael Jackson touched down and breezed through the terminal. In fact, quite the opposite. Airport staff were more helpful than normal, rushing to carry his nine suitcases. Which is nice. For the Jenny Bonds of the world, he wore......

This Day In London’s History 1937: A Japanese aircraft lands at Croydon Airport, setting a world record for the fastest flight from Tokyo to London. In the 1930s there had been considerable interest in establishing records for long distance flights, and a prize had been offered for the first flight between Paris and Tokyo to take less than 100 hours. However nobody had yet won this prize, despite many attempts, including one that failed......

Battersea Power Station’s future remains in doubt as the fantastic hulk of the art-deco building itself remains in sorry dereliction. Yesterday, the Guardian reported that the new owners of the £400m prime 36+ acre riverside site, Treasury Holdings, had scrapped development plans approved by Wandsworth Council in November last year and speculated whether London might be about to lose the four iconic chimneys altogether to yet another bland, luxury, residential development if the Power......

BBC: Three men have been arrested in connection with the suicide bombings in London on 7 July 2005. Two men, aged 23 and 30, were arrested shortly before 1300 GMT at Manchester Airport when they were due to catch a flight to Pakistan. A third man, aged 26, was arrested at a house in Leeds shortly after 1600 GMT. The men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of......

If Islam had confessionals like the Catholic faith, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's imam would be a busy man. "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z." "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl." "I was responsible for planning, surveying and financing for the operation to destroy Heathrow Airport, the Canary Wharf building and Big Ben on British soil." These and around 30 other admissions......

London City Airport is closed until further notice after an Air France jet burst its tyres on landing: The Air France 146 jet from Paris got into difficulties when it touched down on the runway at 0835 GMT on Tuesday. It came to rest at the eastern end of the runway and all 55 passengers and five crew were transported to the terminal uninjured, the airport said. An inquiry has been launched and passengers......

Of course while some of us complained about the snow (or stayed at home) others just grabbed their boards and made the most of it before the commute: And here is a tube driver explaining just what went wrong this morning. More snowboarding was captured by the Associated Press as Jamin Piggott, from New Zealand, snowboards at Stansted Airport after his flight for a skiing holiday was cancelled and Madame Tussauds sculptor Roger McKay puts......

Lots of international papers are picking up the story of a body found in the landing gear of a BA flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles: A pilot discovered the body of the young man in the front right wheel well of the 747-400 during a routine inspection shortly before it was to return to London, airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles said. The FBI determined the stowaway likely died in the wheel well, Castles said.......

An IT specialist living in London was refused entry to his flight from Melbourne because of the shirt he was wearing. It wasn't covered in semtex, dripping explosive water or concealing boxcutters, but it did say WORLD'S # 1 TERRORIST above a photo of George Bush: It was not the first time Mr Jasson had been told to remove his T-shirt. On December 2, a security guard at London's Heathrow Airport told him, "You......