November 8 marks a very special day for the airline industry worldwide. Despite being a measure adopted by a single country, the reopening of the United States to receive travelers from European countries, after the long period of border restrictions due to the pandemic, became a meaningful moment for airlines around the world, since it is one of the most vibrant markets that attract visitors either for tourism or business.
British Airways had informed that this Monday, its flight between Heathrow Airport in London and JFK Airport in New York would cross the Atlantic Ocean under the BA1 identification, a number used specifically for very unique operations, including the era of the Concorde flights.
British Airlines’ flight had already earned this remarkable numbering due to the magnitude of the moment for the recovery of world aviation, however, another special surprise was seen at the time of departure. Its competitor, Virgin Atlantic, coordinated with its rival and Heathrow airport the execution of simultaneous take-offs between its first flights.
As detailed by our media partner, Aeroin, at 8:50 am in London, the Airbus A350-1000 with registration G-XWBG departed on flight BA1 (or BAW1) from runway 27R and the Airbus A350-1000 with registration G-VJAM departed on flight VS3 (or VIR3N) from runway 27L:
Image: FlightRadar24
The result was a beautiful scene of two large long-range aircraft departing the runways of the British capital’s largest airport at the same time to fly to New York. The moment was recorded from different angles, including aerial footage and even from inside the airport control tower, as shown in the videos below:
According to NATS, the British air navigation services provider, the realization of this double takeoff required a lot of planning and joint work with the airlines and Heathrow Airport, with the first meetings being held in May of this year.
Heathrow’s runways are only 1,414 meters apart, which is too little to allow parallel takeoffs outside of very specific weather and visual conditions.
“Controllers must rely on what is called ‘Reduced Separation in the Proximity of an Aerodrome’ to ensure that the aircraft remain safely separated as they depart the airport, and fortunately today the great British weather was there for them,” NATS said.
“Once both flights were up, at least 3 nautical miles apart and on clearly diverging routes, the pilots were handed over to the team at Swanwick to continue their journey to the Atlantic and ultimately to New York JFK airport,” they added.
