Heathrow passengers 'happy to be home'

21/04/2010

By Nick Jones.

Passengers on the first flight to land at Heathrow airport since the beginning of the airspace closure have expressed their relief to be back in the UK.

The British Airways flight from Vancouver, Canada, arrived at the airport shortly before 22:00 BST after receiving permission to land at the London facility, which had been shut due to the volcanic ash hovering over Europe.

According to the BBC, holidaymakers cheered when the plane finally touched down at Heathrow, as it was originally on course for Shannon in Ireland and passengers did not find out until one hour before landing that it would head to Heathrow.

Neil Rodgers, from Little London, near Reading, told the news provider: "[The ash is] one of those things you can't do anything about. As we were coming in to land I was quite concerned as we were coming through the cloud."

"It's good to be back," he added.

The Daily Mail recently reported that figures from independent think-tank New Economics Foundation show building a third runway at London Heathrow Airport would cost the UK economy some £5 billion.