Did Stansted Airport move the Runway?
Pilots flying into Stansted Airport on July 6th were greeted with a runway that had apparently shifted direction overnight. Runways are named after their position and compass bearing. Airport officials had to rename the runway because of a shift in the North Pole. The runway actually stayed put but its compass bearing changed.
The North Pole is constantly shifting and the shift is significant enough that every 50 years or so airports have to change the bearings of some runways.
Airport officials at Stansted decided to make the name change because the bearing has shifted approximately 1 degree since the runway was built. The old runway name was 23/05 and the new name reflecting the new bearing is 22/04.
Head of operations, Trevor Waldock said:”Redesignating the runway at a busy international airport, such as Stansted, presents a number of complex challenges, so we’ve had a programme of works specially organised to minimise any disruption to normal operations.”
Renaming the runway involved replacing all of the signage on the airfield as well as removing the old numbers at the runway’s end and repainting new ones. This job was completed at night on July 5th so as to not disturb air traffic into and out of the airport.
Thanks to www.bbc.co.uk for the above quotes and to read more on the story please visit the website.