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JMC Air

JMC Air

JMC Air was a British charter airline formed by the merger of Caledonian Airways and Flying Colours following the purchase of Thomas Cook by the Carlson Leisure Group. It started operating under the name from March 2000. The main operating bases were London Gatwick Airport and Manchester International Airport. Aircraft were also stationed at London Stansted Airport, Birmingham International Airport, Bristol International Airport, Glasgow International Airport, Cardiff Airport and Newcastle Airport. At the start of operations the fleet consisted of Boeing 757-200, Airbus A320 and Douglas DC-10. Subsequent the airline became the first UK operator of the stretched Boeing 757-300. Thomas Cook was sold to C&N Touristic of Germany in 2000. In 2002 Thomas Cook rebranded the airline along with its other airlines as Thomas Cook Airlines. JMC Air is named after the son of Thomas Cook, John Mason Cook, born 13 January 1834. Category:Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom Category:Airlines of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

:For other meanings of the terms "United Kingdom" and "UK" , see United Kingdom (disambiguation) and UK (disambiguation). :For an explanation of terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom or the UK) is a country located off the north-western coast of continental Europe, surrounded by the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is composed of four constituent parts: three constituent countries—England, Scotland, and Wales—on the island of Great Britain, and the province of Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland forms the United Kingdom's principal international land border, although there is a nominal frontier with France in the middle of the Channel Tunnel. The UK has several overseas territories and the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands come under the UK's sovereignty. The UK also has close relationships with the fifteen other Commonwealth Realms, as they all share the same head of state. The UK is also one of the largest member states of the European Union and a founding partner of both the UN and NATO.

Terminology


- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: The official name for the sovereign state
- United Kingdom: an abbreviation of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Britain: an informal term that sometimes means United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means Great Britain
- British: an informal term that sometimes means from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means from Great Britain
- Great Britain (as a geographical term): the largest island of the British Isles
- Great Britain (as a political term): England + Wales + Scotland
- British Isles (as a geographical term): Great Britain + Ireland + many smaller surrounding islands. This term is disputed, please see below.
- Ireland (as a geographical term): the second largest island of the British Isles
- Ireland (as a political term): an abbreviation of the Republic of Ireland, a sovereign state on the island of Ireland
- Northern Ireland: a political region of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Ulster (as a geographical term): Often used to refer to Northern Ireland. It is derived from the Irish Language term 'Ulad.' It was one of the ancient Irish provinces (the others were Connaught, Leinster and Munster.). Although it is normally used to refer to Northern Ireland, Ulster also (traditionally) includes Counties Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal, which lie in the Republic of Ireland. The term Ulster is often favoured by the Protestant community.

History

Protestant Today's state is the latest of several unions formed over the last 1000 years. Scotland and England have existed as separate unified entities since the 10th century. Wales, under English control since the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, became part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Act 1535. With the Act of Union 1707, the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland, having shared the same monarch since 1603, agreed to a permanent union as the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1169 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was formed in 1922, after bitter fighting which echoes down to the current political strife, the Anglo-Irish Treaty partitioned Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, with the latter remaining part of the United Kingdom. As provided for in the treaty, Northern Ireland, which consists of six of the nine counties of the Irish province of Ulster, immediately opted out of the Free State and to remain in the UK. The nomenclature of the UK was changed in 1927 to recognise the departure of most of Ireland, with the current name being adopted. 1927 The United Kingdom, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing Western world ideas of property, liberty, capitalism and parliamentary democracy - to say nothing of its part in advancing world literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one quarter of the Earth's surface and encompassed a third of its population. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted from the effects of World War I and World War II. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous nation. The UK has been a member of the European Union since 1973. Its attitude towards further integration is conservative, and there is significant Euroscepticism in UK politics. It has not chosen to adopt the Euro, owing to internal political considerations and the government's judgement of the prevailing economic conditions.

Government and politics

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, with executive power exercised on behalf of the Queen by the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers who head departments. The cabinet, including the Prime Minister, and other ministers collectively make up Her Majesty's Government. These ministers are drawn from and are responsible to Parliament, the legislative body, which is traditionally considered to be "supreme" (that is, able to legislate on any matter and not bound by decisions of its predecessors). The UK is one of the few countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution, relying instead on customs and separate pieces of constitutional law. While the monarch is Head of State and holds all executive power, it is the Prime Minister who is the head of government. The government is answerable chiefly to the House of Commons and the Prime Minister is drawn from this chamber of Parliament by constitutional convention. The majority of cabinet members will be from the House of Commons, the rest from the House of Lords. Ministers do not, however, legally have to come from Parliament, though that is the modern day custom. The British system of government has been emulated around the world - a legacy of the United Kingdom's colonial past - most notably in the other Commonwealth Realms. The Prime Minister is chosen as the MP who can command a majority in the House of Commons - usually the leader of the largest party or, if there is no majority party, the largest coalition. The current Prime Minister is Tony Blair of the Labour Party, who has been in office since 1997. In the United Kingdom the monarch has extensive theoretical powers, but his or her role is mainly, though not exclusively, ceremonial. The monarch is an integral part of Parliament (as the "Crown-in-Parliament") and theoretically gives Parliament the power to meet and create legislation. An Act of Parliament does not become law until it has been signed by the Queen (being given Royal Assent), although no monarch has refused to assent to a bill that has been approved by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708. Although the abolition of the monarchy has been suggested several times, the popularity of the monarchy remains strong in spite of recent controversies. Support for a British republic usually fluctuates between 15% and 25% of the population, with roughly 10% undecided or indifferent [http://www.mori.com/mrr/2000/c000616.shtml]. The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II who acceded to the throne in 1952 and was crowned in 1953. Parliament is the national legislature of the United Kingdom. It is the ultimate legislative authority in the United Kingdom, according to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. It is bicameral, composed of the elected House of Commons and the unelected House of Lords, whose members are mostly appointed. The House of Commons is the more powerful of the two houses. The House of Commons has 646 members who are directly elected from single-member constituencies based on population. The House of Lords has 724 members (though this number is not fixed): hereditary peers, life peers, and bishops of the Church of England. The Church of England is the established church of the state in England. established church]] The two largest political parties are the Labour Party and Conservative Party. The UK has long had a two-party system, but in the last 20 years the Liberal Democrats have re-emerged as a large third party. The electoral system used for general elections is first-past-the-post. The constitution of the United Kingdom is un-codified and partially unwritten, which means that no single document regulates how the government works, and unwritten constitutional conventions are used extensively. The constitution is based on the principle that Parliament is the ultimate sovereign body in the country. There has long been a widespread sense of national identity in the Celtic nations. Throughout the late 19th century the UK debated giving Ireland home rule. The Scottish National Party was founded in 1934, and Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) in 1925. Referenda for devolution succeeded in 1997 for Scotland and Wales and in 1998 for Northern Ireland. In 1999, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales were established, the former having primary legislative power. Proportional representation is used for the elections, which has resulted in a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition government in Scotland. Due to internal disagreements, the Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended since 2002.

Subdivisions

The United Kingdom is a country that is divided into four constituent parts:
- England
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
- Wales The constituent parts of the United Kingdom have administrative subdivisions as follows:
- The regions and administrative counties of England
- The council areas of Scotland
- The counties and county boroughs of Wales
- The districts of Northern Ireland The Laws in Wales Act 1535 incorporated Wales and England into England and Wales for legal purposes. Although all four have historically been divided into counties, England's population is an order of magnitude larger than the others so in recent years it has for some purposes been divided into nine intermediate-level Government Office Regions. Each region is made up of counties and unitary authorities, apart from London, which consists of London boroughs. Although at one point it was intended that each or some of these regions would be given its own regional assembly, the plan's future is uncertain, as of 2004, after the North East region rejected its proposed assembly in a referendum. Scotland consists of 32 Council Areas. Wales consists of 22 Unitary Authorities, styled as 10 County Boroughs, 9 Counties, and 3 Cities. Northern Ireland is divided into 26 Districts. Also sometimes associated with the United Kingdom, though not constitutionally part of the United Kingdom itself, are the Crown dependencies (the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and the Isle of Man) as self-governing possessions of the Crown, and a number of overseas territories under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.

Military

The armed forces of the United Kingdom are known as the British Armed Forces or Her Majesty's Armed Forces, officially the Armed Forces of the Crown. Their Commander-in-Chief is the Queen and they are managed by the Ministry of Defence. Ministry of Defence The British Armed Forces are charged with protecting the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, promoting the United Kingdom's wider security interests, and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants in NATO and other coalition operations. The United Kingdom fields one of the most powerful and comprehensive military forces in the World. Its global power projection capabilities are second only to those of the United States Armed Forces. The British Army had a reported strength of 112,700 in 2004, including 7,600 women, and the Royal Air Force a strength of 53,400. The 40,900-member Royal Navy is in charge of the United Kingdom's independent strategic nuclear arm, which consists of four Trident Ballistic Missile Submarines, while the Royal Marines provide infantry units for amphibious assault and for specialist reinforcement forces in and beyond the NATO area. This puts total active duty military troops in the 210,000 range, currently deployed in over 80 countries. The UK's special forces, principally the SAS, provides elite commandos trained for quick, mobile, military responses; often where secrecy or covert operations are required. The Royal Navy is the second largest navy in the World in terms of gross tonnage. Despite the United Kingdom's wide ranging capabilities, recent pragmatic defence policy has a stated assumption that any large operation would be undertaken as part of a coalition. Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq (Granby, No-Fly-Zones, Desert Fox and Telic) may all be taken as precedent - indeed the last true war in which the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982, in which military action was initiated by Argentina and the UK was fighting a defensive, rather than offensive, campaign. The British army has been actively involved in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. However, a programme of demilitarisation is being gradually implemented.

Geography

Troubles World Factbook Map of the United Kingdom]] Most of England consists of rolling lowland terrain, divided east from west by more mountainous terrain in the Northwest (Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District) and north (the upland moors of the Pennines) and limestone hills of the Peak District by the Tees-Exe line. The lower limestone hills of the Isle of Purbeck, Cotswolds, Lincolnshire and chalk downs of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn and the Humber Estuary. The largest urban area is Greater London. Near Dover, the Channel Tunnel links the United Kingdom with France. There is no peak in England that is 1000 metres (3,300 ft) or greater. Wales is mostly mountainous, the highest peak being Snowdon at 1085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level. North of the mainland is the island of Anglesey. The largest and capital city is Cardiff, located in South Wales. Scotland's geography is varied, with lowlands in the south and east and highlands in the north and west, including Ben Nevis, the UK's highest mountain at 1343 metres (4,406 ft). There are many long and deep-sea arms, firths, and lochs. A multitude of islands west and north of Scotland are also included, notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. The largest city is Glasgow. Northern Ireland, making up the north-eastern part of Ireland, is mostly hilly. The main cities are Belfast ('Beal Feirste' in Irish) and Londonderry / Derry ('Doire' in Irish). The province is home to one of the UK’s World Heritage Sites, the Giant's Causeway, which consists of more than 40,000 six-sided basalt columns up to 40 feett (12 m) high. In total it is estimated that the UK includes around 1098 small islands, some being natural and some being crannogs, a type of artificial island which was built in past times using stone and wood, gradually enlarged by natural waste building up over time.

Economy

artificial island The United Kingdom, a leading trading power and financial centre, has an essentially capitalist economy, the fourth largest in the world in terms of market exchange rates and the sixth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates. Over the past three decades, the government has greatly reduced public ownership by means of privatisation programmes, and has contained the growth of the Welfare State. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with only 1% of the labour force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial state. Services, particularly banking, insurance and business services, account for by far the largest proportion of GDP. Industry continues to decline in importance, although the UK is still Europe's largest manufacturer of armaments, petroleum products, personal computers, televisions, and mobile telephones. Tourism is also important: with over 24 million tourists a year, between China (33) and Austria (19.1), the United Kingdom is ranked as the sixth major tourist destination in the world. The Blair government has put off the question of participation in the Euro system, citing five economic tests that would need to be met before they recommend that the UK adopts the Euro, and hold a referendum.

Society

Demographics

At the April 2001 census, the United Kingdom's population was 58,789,194, the third-largest in the European Union (behind Germany and metropolitan France) and the twenty-first largest in the world. Its overall population density is one of the highest in the world. Almost one-third of the population lives in England's prosperous south-east and is predominantly urban and suburban--with about 7.2 million in the capital of London. The United Kingdom's high literacy rate (99%) is attributable to universal public education introduced for the primary level in 1870 and secondary level in 1900 (except in Scotland where it was introduced in 1696). Education is mandatory from ages five through sixteen. referendum The Church of England and the Church of Scotland function as the official national religions in their respective countries, but most religions found in the world are represented in the United Kingdom. Anglicanism is the state religion that has been established in England since 1534 during the reign of King Henry VIII. During his reign, England broke ties with the Roman Catholic church and established the Church of England as the offical religion of England. Reforms to the nature of the church's relationship to the state have been ongoing, especially concerning the nature of the House of Lords and the appointment of a fixed amount of the lordships going to Lords Temporal, bishops of the Church of England. A group of islands close to continental Europe, the British Isles have been subject to many invasions and migrations, especially from Scandinavia and the continent, including Roman occupation for several centuries. Contemporary Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic stocks that settled there before the eleventh century. The pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse influences were blended on Great Britain under the Normans, Scandinavian Vikings who had lived in Northern France. Although Celtic languages persist in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, the predominant language is English, which is a West Germanic language descended from Old English, featuring a large amount of borrowings from Norman French.The other indigenous languages include the Celtic languages; Welsh, the closely related Irish and Scots Gaelic, and the Cornish language; as well as Lowland Scots, which is closely related to English; Romany; and British Sign Language (Northern Ireland Sign Language is also used in Northern Ireland). Celtic dialectal influences from Cumbric persisted in Northern England for many centuries, most famously in a unique set of numbers used for counting sheep. Recent immigrants, especially from the Commonwealth, speak many other languages, including Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. The United Kingdom has the largest number of Hindi speaking peoples outside of the Indian sub continent.

Culture

Urdu The United Kingdom contains many of the world's leading universities, including the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and the University of London (which incorporates, amongst others, Imperial College and University College London), and has produced many great scientists and engineers including Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Isambard Kingdom Brunel; the nation is credited with many inventions including the locomotive, vaccination, television, vacuum, and both the internal combustion and the jet engine. The English language has spread to all corners of the world (primarily because of the country’s empire) and is referred to as a ‘global language’. It is now taught as a second language more than any other around the world. Over the next few decades, it is estimated that approximately half the world’s population will be proficient in the language. Playwright William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous writer in the history of the English language; other well-known writers from the United Kingdom include the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne), Jane Austen, William Thackeray, J. R. R. Tolkien, John Milton, H. G. Wells and Charles Dickens. Important poets include Lord Byron, Robert Burns, Lord Tennyson and William Blake. Notable composers from the United Kingdom have included William Byrd, John Taverner, William Lawes, John Dowland, Thomas Tallis, and Henry Purcell from the 16th and early 17th centuries, and, more recently, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Arthur Sullivan (most famous for working with librettist Sir W. S. Gilbert), Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten in the 19th and 20th. George Frideric Handel spent most of his composing life in England. The BBC is the oldest and perhaps the most respected broadcasting network on the globe, with the BBC World Service radio channel and its news output held in particularly high regard. The other main television networks are ITV, Channel 4, five (TV) and Sky Television. Popular programmes in the UK include the three soaps Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as the comedy news quiz Have I Got News For You and Reality TV shows Big Brother and The X Factor. Various British TV formats have been exported to other nations, notably Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, The Weakest Link and The Office. The UK was, with the US, one of the two main contributors in the development of rock and roll, and the UK has provided some of the most famous rock stars, including the Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, The Who and many others. The UK was at the forefront of punk rock music in the 1970s with bands such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash, and the subsequent rebirth of heavy metal with bands such as Motörhead and Iron Maiden. In mid to late '90s, the Britpop phenomenon has seen bands such as Oasis, Blur, Radiohead and Coldplay gain international fame. The UK is also at the forefront of electronica, with British artists such as Aphex Twin, Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney and Lamb at the cutting edge. The United Kingdom was also associated with music from the Caribbean, with a large number of Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals being present in the UK.

Sport

A great number of major sports originated in the United Kingdom, including football, golf, cricket, rugby, tennis and boxing. The national sport of the UK is association football, but the UK does not compete as a nation in any major football tournament. Instead, the home nations compete individually as England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is because of this unique four-team arrangement that the UK currently does not compete in football events at the Olympic Games. However, a united team will probably take part in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, as these are hosted in London. The English and Northern Irish football associations have confirmed participation in this team while the Scottish FA and the Welsh FA have declined to participate. The UK also hosts many world-renowned football clubs, such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal in England and Rangers and Celtic in Scotland. Clubs compete in national leagues and competitions and some go on to compete in European competitions. Both forms of rugby are national sports. Rugby League originates from and is generally played in the North of England, whilst Rugby Union is played all over Britain. In Rugby League the UK plays as one nation - Great Britain - whilst in union it is represented by the four nations. England are the current holders of the Rugby Union World Cup. Every four years the British and Irish Lions (comprising the best players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) tour other countries. Cricket is also played in the UK, although it is focussed in England. The Wimbledon Championships are an international tennis event held in Wimbledon in south London every summer and are seen as the most prestigious of the tennis calendar. Golf is one of the most popular participation sports played in the UK and St Andrews in Scotland is the sport's home course.

Miscellaneous topics

External links


- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations] History of the nations within the UK.
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html CIA World Factbook: UK.]
- [http://www.direct.gov.uk Gateway to UK governmental services and websites.]
- [http://www.number-10.gov.uk Number 10 Downing Street]
- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk Office of National Statistics]
- [http://www.opsi.gov.uk Office of Public Sector Information] Source for all UK legislation 1987-present (successor to Her Majesty's Stationery Office).
- [http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/britishisles/ The British Isles] Independent view of the UK.
- [http://www.royal.gov.uk The British Monarchy]
- [http://www.parliament.uk/ The United Kingdom Parliament]
- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=5703&Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=272 Official Yearbook of the UK] factbook produced by the Office for National Statistics (years 2000 to 2005 available online).
- [http://www.ukcities.co.uk UK Cities] lists a variety of useful resources for every city in the UK.
- [http://www.justuk.org UK travel guide] United Kingdom for travellers.
- [http://www.world66.com/europe/unitedkingdom World66 Guide to United Kingdom] A travel guide written by its users.
- [http://www.multimap.co.uk www.multimap.co.uk] provides online maps and aerial photographs of the UK.
- [http://www.streetmap.co.uk www.streetmap.co.uk] an alternative to multimap.
- [http://www.freeworldmaps.net/europe/united-kingdom/map.html Physical map of United Kingdom.]
- [http://www.upmystreet.com www.upmystreet.com] detailed localised information about places in the United Kingdom.
- [http://www.parks.it/world/UK/Eindex.html UK Parks] National parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and other protected areas. ----
Category:British Isles Category:European countries Category:European Union member states Category:Members of the Commonwealth of Nations Category:Monarchies A als:Grossbritannien und Nordirland zh-min-nan:Liân-ha̍p Ông-kok ko:영국 ms:United Kingdom ja:イギリス simple:United Kingdom th:สหราชอาณาจักร

Caledonian Airways

Caledonian Airways was a Scottish international airline formed in 1961, initially using Douglas DC-7s. In November 1970, the airline bought and merged with British United Airways. After two years, having used the interim name "Caledonian/BUA", the airline was renamed British Caledonian Airways.

Second incarnation

British Airways took over British Caledonian in the late 1980s and created an airline from both its British Airtours charters subsidiary and the BCal Charter subsidiary, and this airline was once again called Caledonian Airways. Through the 1990s the British charter airline market underwent significant price driven consolidation. The airlines flying older types almost all went under or were absorbed. Caledonian was in a strong position, it had newer types (including brand new A320s, and relatively modern wide-body aircraft including DC-10s and TriStars). Thus Caledonain absorbed two previously significant UK charter operators Dan-Air and Air Europe. This subsidiary was finally sold by British Airways to the Carlson Group which rebranded the airline simply as 'Caledonian', airline code CKT. The blue and gold colour scheme of the aircraft remained the same. The airline became part of the JMC group (along with Flying Colours) in the late 1990s which resulted in the aircraft forming part of the new JMC Air fleet in March 2000. The Caledonian name and colours were lost to the new bright green colours of JMC. JMC Air changed name again for the summer season of 2002 to Thomas Cook Airlines. Thomas Cook retired the former Caledonian DC-10s that were in their fleet, replacing them with Airbus A330-200s. Thomas Cook Airlines still operates some of the newer A320s that were delivered to Caledonian shortly before their takeover by the JMC group.

External links

[http://airlines.afriqonline.com/airlines/281.htm Detailed history of Caledonian Airways] Category:Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom Category:Airlines of the United Kingdom Category:History of Scotland Category:Companies of Scotland

2000

This article is about the year 2000. For other uses of 2000, see 2000 (number) or 2000 (breakdancing move). 2000 (MM) is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. Popular culture also holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium. By strict interpretation of the Gregorian Calendar, however, this distinction falls to the year 2001. This is due to the fact that the first century began with the year 1, and there does not exist a year zero. The first century (or first 100 years AD) was from January 1, in the year one (1 AD) through December 31, in the year one-hundred (100 AD). The second century began on January 1, in the year one-hundred and one (101 AD). The year 2000 is also marked as:
- The International Year for a Culture of Peace.
- The World Mathematical Year. See also Wikipedia's almanac of events for this year.

Events

January


- January 1 - Millennium celebrations take place throughout the world. Y2K passes without the serious, widespread computer failures and malfunctions that had been predicted.
- January 5-January 8 - The 2000 al-Qaida Summit
- January 6 - The last remaining Pyrenean Ibex is found dead.
- January 10 - America On-line announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion. This is the largest-ever corporate merger.
- January 11 - the armed wing of Islamic Salvation Front concludes its negotiations with the government for an amnesty and disbands in Algeria.
- January 11 - The trawler Solway Harvester sinks off the Isle of Man.
- January 14 - A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Bosnian Muslims in a Bosnian village.
- January 16 - In Sacramento, California a commercial truck carrying evaporated milk is driven into the state capitol building killing the driver.
- January 24 - God's Army, Karen militia group led by twins Johnny and Luther Htoo, take 700 hostages at a Thai hospital near the Burmese border.
- January 30 - St. Louis Rams 23 defeat the Tennessee Titans 16 to win the Super_Bowl_XXXIV
- January 30 - Off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169. Within a day, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes off the California coast into the Pacific Ocean, killing 88.
- January 31 - Dr. Harold Shipman in sentenced to life in prison for murder of at least 15 of his patients out of 365 suspected victims.

February


- February 4 - German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta is jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion in connection with sabotage of German railway lines.
- February 6 - Tarja Halonen is elected the first Finnish female president.
- February 13 - Final original Peanuts comic strip is published.
- February 14 - The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker entered orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.

March


- March 1 - The Constitution of Finland is rewritten.
- March 2 - Hans Blix assumes the position of Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC.
- March 8 - Tokyo train disaster.
- March 9 - FBI arrests suspected purveyor of art forgeries, Ely Sakhai, in New York City.
- March 10 - The NASDAQ Composite Index reaches an all-time high of 5048. ([http://dynamic.nasdaq.com/dynamic/IndexChart.asp?symbol=IXIC&desc=NASDAQ+Composite&sec=nasdaq&site=nasdaq&months=84])
- March 18 - 2000 Taiwanese presidential election: Chen Shui-bian is elected President of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
- March 20 - Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther, is captured after gun battle that left a sheriff's deputy dead.
- March 21 - Pope John Paul II began the first office visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to Israel.
- March 21 - US Supreme Court ruled the goverment lacked authority to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug, throwing out the Clinton administration's main anti-smoking initiative.
- March 26 - Presidential elections in Russia: Vladimir Putin elected President.
- March 30 - America's Cup 2000 retained by Team New Zealand near Auckland. Prada Challenge 2000 lost 0-5 in a "best-of-9".

April

April.]]
- April 1 - Japanese prime minister Keizo Obuchi suffers a stroke and falls into a coma.
- April 3 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
- April 5 - Yoshiro Mori replaces Obuchi as prime minister of Japan.
- April 7 - Attack submarine ex-Trepang completes being recycled.
- April 16 - Tuanku Syed Putra ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail, Raja of Perlis dies after a reign of 55 years. He was the longest reigning monarch in the world since the death of Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein.
- April 17 - Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin becomes Raja of Perlis.
- April 22 - In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC ending one of the most publicized custody battles in US history.
- April 25 - The State of Vermont passes HB847, legalizing Civil Unions for same-sex couples.

May


- May 3 - A rare conjunction occurs on the New Moon including all seven of the traditional celestial bodies known from ancient times up until 1781 with the discovery of Uranus. The May 2000 conjunction consisted of: the Sun and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
- May 3 - Computer pioneer Datapoint Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- May 12 - The Tate Modern opens in London.
- May 13 - In Enschede a heavy fireworks explosion kills 20 and leaves an entire neighborhood in ruins.
- May 18 - Boo.com collapses due to lack of funds after six months.
- May 25 - Israel withdraws IDF troops from southern Lebanon after 22 years.
- May 28 - The volcano Mount Cameroon erupts.

June


- June 1 - Mark Mendlan, professional wrestler known by his ring name "Kid Gorgeous," is killed while wrestling at a show in New Hampshire.
- June 7 - U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of the 4th circuit ordered the breakup of Microsoft Corp.
- June 10 - The New Jersey Devils defeat the Dallas Stars 4 games to 2 to win the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 10 - The 2000 European Football Championship begins, hosted jointly by Belgium and the Netherlands.
- June 21 - Section 28, a law preventing the promotion of homosexuality is repealed by the Scottish Parliament.
- June 23 - Palace Backpackers Hostel fire in Childers, Queensland, Australia, kills 15 people.
- June 30 - During a set of the band Pearl Jam at the Roskilde Festival near Copenhagen, 9 die and 26 are injured in the crowd.

July

July
- July 2 - France beat Italy 2-1 to win the 2000 European Football Championship with a golden goal.
- July 2 - Presidential election of Mexico. Vicente Fox wins the Presidency as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party).
- July 10 - In southern Nigeria, a leaking petroleum pipeline explodes killing about 250 villagers who were scavenging gasoline
- July 10 - Death of Denis O Conor Donn, died 10th July 2000, aged 88; succeded by his son, Desmond as The O Connor Donn
- July 18 - Alex Salmond resigns as the leader of the Scottish National Party
- July 25 - A Concorde carrying Air France Flight 4590 crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 5 on the ground.

August


- August 1 - The Santa Cruz Operation announced that it will sell its Server Software and Services Divisions, as well as UnixWare and OpenServer technologies, to Caldera Systems,Inc.
- August 8 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.
- August 12 - The Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea, resulting in the deaths of all 118 men on board.
- August 14 - The first comic of Megatokyo goes online. This webcomic will later become one of the most popular comics on the web (in terms of page views) and spawn numerous imitators.
- August 25 - the Emulex hoax - wire services publish fraudulent bad news about Emulex
- August 27 - The Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed.

September


- September 5 - Tuvalu joins the United Nations.
- September 6 - In New York City, the United Nations Millennium Summit begins with more than 180 world leaders present.
- September 6 - The last wholly Swedish-owned arms manufacturer, Bofors, is sold to American arms manufacturer United Defense
- September 7–14 - The UK fuel protests take place, with refineries blockaded, and supply to the country's network of petrol stations halted.
- September 8 - Albania officially joins the World Trade Organization.
- September 15 - The 2000 Summer Olympics are opened in Sydney, Australia.
- September 16 - Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze is last seen alive; this day is taken as the commemoration date of his death.
- September 24 - The American Family Association begins lobbying the U.S. Congress to eradicate the National Endowment for the Arts for funding the controversial book One of the Guys by Robert Clark Young
- September 26 - Anti-globalization protests in Prague (some 15,000 protesters) turned violent during the IMF and World Bank summits.
- September 28 - Ariel Sharon leads several hundred armed Israelis in a visit to the Temple Mount. Palestinian civil disorder increases into the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
- September 29 - The Long Kesh prison in Northern Ireland is closed.

October


- October 2 NBC Today Show expanded it to three hours (7:00–10:00 A.M. Eastern Time/Pacific Time; 6:00–9:00 A.M. Central Time/Mountain Time)
- October 5 - President Slobodan Milošević leaves office after widespread demonstrations throughout Serbia and the withdrawal of Russian support.
- October 11 - 250 million gallons of coal sludge spill in Martin County, Kentucky. Considered a greater environmental disaster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
- October 12 - In Aden, Yemen, the USS Cole is badly damaged by two suicide bombers who placed a small boat laden with explosives along-side the United States Navy destroyer, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.
- October 21 15 Arab leaders convened in Cairo, Egypt, for their first summit in four years; the Libyan delegation walked out, angry over signs the summit would stop short of calling for breaking ties with Israel.
- October 22 – Mainichi Shinbun exposes Japanese archeologist Shinichi Fujimura as a fraud; Japanese archaeologists had based their treatises of his findings.
- October 26 - Pakistani authorities announce that their police have found an apparently ancient mummy of a persian princess in the province of Baluchistan. Iran, Pakistan and the Taliban all claim the mummy until Pakistan announces it is a forgery in April 17 2001
- October 31 - Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collides with construction equipment in the Chiang Kai Shek International Airport - 83 dead.
- October 31 - The last Jeremy clone has shut down.

November

November
- November - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq rejects new U.N. Security Council weapons inspections proposals
- November 1 - Yugoslavia's new democratic government joined the United Nations after eight years of U.N. ostracism under former strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
- November 3 - Widespread flooding throughout England and Wales after days of heavy rain
- November 4 - President Clinton vetoed a bill that would have criminalized the leaking of government secrets.
- November 7 - U.S. presidential election, 2000: Republican challenger George W. Bush defeats Democrat Vice President Al Gore, but the final outcome is not known for over a month because of disputed votes in Florida.
- November 7 - Criminal gang raids the Millennium Dome to steal The Millennium Star diamond but police surveillance catches them in the act
- November 7 - Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first First Lady of the United States to win public office
- November 11 - Kaprun disaster, Austria, where 155 skiers and snowboarders die when a cable car catches fire in an alpine tunnel.
- November 13 - Richard C. Duncan presents his paper, "The Peak Of World Oil Production And The Road To The Olduvai Gorge", on the Olduvai theory (about the collapse of the industrial civilization), at the Summit 2000 Pardee Keynote Symposia of the Geological Society of America)
- November 14 - Netscape version 6.0 is launched following two years of open source development creating a stable Mozilla web browser upon which it is based
- November 16 - Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting US President to visit Vietnam
- November 17 - Catastrophical landslide in Log pod Mangartom,Slovenia, kills 7, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophies in Slovenia in the past 100 years.
- November 17 - Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru
- November 27 - Canada - Parliamentary elections - Jean Chrétien re-elected as Prime Minister as Liberal Party increases majority in House of Commons
- November 28 - Ukrainian politician Oleksander Moroz touches off the Cassette Scandal by publicly accusing President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

December


- December 1 - Mexico - Vicente Fox becomes the first opposition President to take office since Francisco I. Madero in 1911. He wins the Presidency as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party).
- December 28 - U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years.
- December 30 - Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines, within a span of a few hours killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.

Unknown Date


- Limited reintroduction of routinely armed police in the UK for the first time since 1936.
- Scientists at University of Szeged's laboratory were first in the world to produce artificial heredity material.
- Millie I. Webb elected president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Births


- February 23 - Max & Sam Christy, American actors
- March 15- Amy and Emily Walton, English actresses
- April 25 - Jacob & Joshua Rips, American actors
- October 6 - Amanda Pace, American actress
- October 20 - Cooper and Oliver Guynes, American actors
- November 8 - Madison and Marissa Poer, actresses

Deaths

January


- January 2 - Patrick O'Brian, English writer (b. 1914)
- January 15 - Fran Ryan, American actress (b. 1916)
- January 19 - Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1934)
- January 19 - Hedy Lamarr, Austrian actress (b. 1913)

February


- February 9 - Beau Jack, American boxer (b. 1921)
- February 11 - Roger Vadim, French film director (b. 1928)
- February 12 - Jalacy "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins, American musician (b. 1929)
- February 12 - Tom Landry, American football coach (b. 1924)
- February 12 - Charles M. Schulz, American comic strip artist (b. 1921)
- February 23 - Sir Stanley Matthews, English footballer (b. 1915)

April


- April 6 - Habib Bourguiba, President of Tunisia (b. 1903)
- April 16 - Tuanku Syed Putra ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail, King of Malaysia (b. 1920)
- April 25 - David Merrick, American stage producer (b. 1911)
- April 29 - Phạm Văn Ðồng, Prime Minister of Vietnam (b. 1906)

May


- May 11 - Paula Wessely, Austrian actress (b. 1907)
- May 12 - Adam Petty, American race car driver (b. 1980)
- May 14 - Keizo Obuchi, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1937)
- May 17 - Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1909)
- May 19 - Yevgeny Khrunov, cosmonaut

London Gatwick Airport

Gatwick Airport is London's second airport and the second busiest airport in the UK after Heathrow in terms of passengers per year. It is located in West Sussex, approximately 40 km (25 miles) south of London, and an equal distance north of Brighton. Gatwick is the busiest single-runway airport in the world, handling over 31 million passengers annually, flying to around 200 destinations. Charter airlines are generally not allowed to operate from Heathrow and many use Gatwick instead as their base. Many flights to and from the USA also use Gatwick because of restrictions on transatlantic operations from Heathrow. The airport is also a secondary hub for British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. In 1979, when the last major expansion took place, an agreement was reached with the local council not to expand further before 2019, but recent proposals to build a second runway at Gatwick led to protests about increased noise and pollution and demolition of houses and villages. The government has now decided to expand Stansted and Heathrow but not Gatwick. Gatwick's owners BAA have published a new consultation which includes a possible second runway south of the airport, but leaves the villages of Charlwood and Hookwood, north of the airport, intact. In common with many airports car parking is in limited supply, in part due to local planning restrictions, and facilities are full to capacity in the summer months.

History

The name "Gatwick" dates back to 1241, and was the name of a manor on the site of today's airport until the 19th century. In 1890, the manor was converted into a race course, which hosted the Aintree Grand National for several years during World War I. In 1930, the Surrey Aero Club was incorporated at Gatwick, and pilots began flying their aeroplanes to the races. In 1933, the race course was purchased by an outside investor and redesigned as a full airport. The Air Ministry approved commercial flights from Gatwick the following year, and by 1936, scheduled flights were operating to several destinations on the Continent. A circular terminal called "The Beehive" was built, with a subway connecting it to Gatwick railway station so that passengers could travel from Victoria Station to the aircraft without stepping into the elements. After World War II, Gatwick was re-designated as an alternative to Heathrow Airport, and the airport was closed for an extensive (£7.8 million) renovation between 1956 and 1958. The new Gatwick was the world's first airport with a direct railway connection, and was one of the first to use a fully enclosed pier-based terminal design with covered jetbridges connecting waiting areas directly to aircraft. In 1969, Ariana Flight 701, a Boeing 727 of Ariana Afghan Airlines was arriving at Gatwick from Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt am Main, Germany when it crashed into a house, killing 50 of the 66 people on board. Two people died on the ground.

Terminals

The airport has two terminals, North and South, which are connected by an automatic Transit system similar to a monorail (Though the information screens at the transit stations specifically state they are not monorails).

North Terminal

Construction began on the North Terminal in 1983: it was the largest construction project south of London to have taken place in the 1980s. The terminal was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988 and was expanded in 1991.
- Adria Airways (Ljubljana)
- Aerolíneas Argentinas (Buenos Aires and Madrid)
- Air France (Nantes and Strasbourg)
- Air Namibia (Windhoek)
- Air Southwest (Newquay and Plymouth)
- Arkia Israel Airlines (Tel Aviv)
- American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth and Raleigh/Durham)
- Astraeus (Accra, Alghero, Aqaba, Aswan, Banjul, Bastia, Bergen, Bodrum, Brescia, Calvi, Chambery, Corfu, Deer Lake, Dubrovnik, El Alamein, Fagernes, Freetown, Geneva, Hassi Messaoud, Heraklion, Kalamata, Kefallinia, Kuusamo, Las Palmos, Malabo, Malaga, Murcia, Murmansk, Mykonos, Olbia, Paphos, Preveza, Salzburg, Sharm El Sheikh, Split, Taba, Tenerife, Thira, Volos, Zadar, Zakinthos)
- Austrian Airlines (Innsbruck)
- British Airways (Aberdeen, Algiers, Amsterdam, Antigua, Atlanta, Barbados, Barcelona, Bari, Bermuda, Bologna, Bordeaux, Bridgetown, Bucharest, Budapest, Cagliari, Catania, Dallas/Fort Worth, Dublin, Dubrovnik, Edinburgh, Fez, Faro, Frankfurt, Geneva, Genoa, Glasgow, Grenada, Grenoble, Hanover, Hassi Messaoud, Houston/Intercontinental, Inverness, Isle of Man, Jersey, Kingston, Krakow, Luxembourg, Madrid, Manchester (UK), Marseille, Munich, Nantes, Naples, Newcastle, Nice, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pisa, Prague, Prishtinë, Rome/Fiumicino, St Lucia, Sofia, Split, Tampa, Tenerife, Thessaloniki, Tobago, Toulouse, Turin, Venice, Verona, Vilnius, Zurich)
- British Airways Citiexpress (Inverness, Isle of Man)
- Daallo Airlines (Djibouti)
- Delta Air Lines (Atlanta and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky)
- Emirates (Dubai)
- Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi)
- First Choice Airways (Alicante, Almeria, Antayla, Antigua, Arrecife, Aruba, Banjul, Barcelona, Bodrum, Burgas, Cancun, Chania, Corfu, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Geneva, Goa, Grenoble, Heraklion, Holguin, Ibiza, Innsbruck, Kalamata, Kefallinia, Kittala, Kos, Krakow, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Mahon, Malaga, Male, Malta, Mitilini, Monastir, Naples, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Porlamar, Preveza, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Porlamar, Puerto Plata, Reus, Rhodes, Salzburg, Sanford, Sharm el Sheikh, St. Thomas, Skiathos, Taba, Tel Aviv, Tenerife, Thessaloniki, Toulouse, Turin, Varadero, Varna, Verona, Volos, Zadar, Zakinthos)
- Flyjet (Amritsar, Corfu, Heraklion, Larnaca, Luxor, Mahon, Paphos, Sharm el Sheikh, Tenerife)
- GB Airways (Agadir, Alicante, Almeria, Arrecife, Bastia, Faro, Fez, Funchal, Geneva, Gibraltar, Heraklion, Ibiza, Innsbruck, Las Palmas, Lyon, Mahon, Malaga, Malta, Marrakesh, Montpellier, Murcia, Nantes, Oporto, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Porto, Salzburg, Seville, Sharm el Sheikh, Tenerife, Tunis, Turin, Valencia)
- Israir Airlines (Tel Aviv)
- Kıbrıs Türk Hava Yolları (Antalya, Dalaman)
- Lithuanian Airlines (Vilnius)
- LOT Polish Airlines (Krakow)
- Nationwide Airlines (Johannesburg)
- Royal Air Maroc (Marrakech)
- SN Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
- Tarom (Bucharest)

South Terminal

The main pier of the South Terminal was built during the 1956-58 construction of Gatwick. In 1962, two additional piers were added, and in 1983, a circular satellite pier was opened, connected to the main terminal by the UK's first automated people mover system. The original pier was extensively refurbished in 1985, and the entire terminal is currently under a second refurbishment program.
- African Safari Airways (Mombasa)
- Afriqiyah Airways (Tripoli)
- Air Algerie (Hassi Messaoud)
- Air Atlanta (Faro, Hurghada, Paphos, Sanford, Sharm El Sheikh)
- Air Baltic (Vilnius)
- Air Malta (Malta)
- Air Nostrum (Asturias and Mahon)
- Air Transat (Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver)
- Air Zimbabwe (Harare)
- Alexandair (Heralion, Kos)
- Aurigny Air (Guernsey)
- Azerbaijan Airlines (Baku)
- Belavia Belarusian Airlines (Minsk)
- BH Air (Burgas, Plovdiv, Sofia, Varna)
- Braathens (Bergen and Oslo)
- BritishJet (Malta)
- Bulgaria Air (Sofia and Varna)
- Centralwings (Krakow and Warsaw)
- Continental Airlines

London Stansted Airport

Stansted Airport is a medium-sized passenger airport with a single runway, located in the English county of Essex about thirty miles north of London. The airport is owned and operated by BAA. It is the third-busiest airport in the London area after Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport. Several budget airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet maintain bases at Stansted, and Volga-Dnepr often station a large Antonov An-124 freighter to the northwest of the main runway ready to carry outsize cargoes. FedEx is a dominant operator of trans-Atlantic freighter services. In December 2003 the Government published a White Paper, setting UK policy for air transport for the next 30 years. The Government gave its backing for massive expansion of air travel. Specifically, it supported maximum usage of Stansted's present runway and the construction of a second runway by 2011/2012. This would allow Stansted to handle more passengers than Heathrow does today. At maximum capacity, the expanded airport could process 80 million passengers per annum and a significant proportion of the UK's freight traffic. The proposals are strongly opposed by campaign group Stop Stansted Expansion. The airport is named after the village Stansted Mountfitchet. The nearest town to the airport is Bishop's Stortford.

History

Stansted was constructed by the United States Army in 1942 as a bomber base. By 1944, over 600 aircraft were stationed there. The base played a major role in the Battle of Normandy. After the war, the base was not needed; it was transferred to the Air Ministry in 1947. The US military returned in 1954 to extend the runway for a possible transfer to NATO but this was never realised and the airport ended up under BAA control in 1966. Initially, the airport was used by holiday charter operators wishing to escape the higher costs associated with operating from Heathrow and Gatwick. From the outset, however, BAA and the British government planned to develop Stansted into London's third airport, to relieve Heathrow and Gatwick of excess congestion in the future. The airport's first terminal building opened in 1969 and was expanded the next year to handle the growing number of passengers. In 1984, the government approved a plan to develop Stansted in two phases, involving both airfield and terminal improvements that would increase the airport's capacity to 15 million passengers per year. Construction of the current terminal building began in 1986 and was completed in 1991. Continental Airlines used to operate a transatlantic market between Stansted and Newark, New Jersey. Continental's flight was operated daily with a Boeing 757-200, until withdrawn for commercial reasons after September 11, 2001. On November 1, 2005, MAXjet Airways commenced all Business Class service from Stansted to New York JFK and opened its renovated airside passenger lounge in Satellite 1. Tentative plans have been published for the addition of up to three more runways. If the Uttlesford district council approves the current plan, Stansted is to get a second parallel runway which should allow the airport to increase its capacity from 12 million in 2000 to 74 million air passengers in 2030. In 2004, the number of passengers using Stansted rose 11.7% to 20.9 million. As a comparison, traffic at Heathrow rose 6.2% to 67.1 million passengers, and Gatwick was up 5% to 31.4 million.

Ground transportation

Stansted has a railway station below the terminal building, with frequent rail services to London and less frequent services to Cambridge and the Midlands. The Stansted Express train runs to and from Liverpool Street station in London every 15 minutes and the journey time is 45 minutes. At the time of writing (January 2004) the fare is 24 GBP or 36 EUR return. Scheduled express bus or coach services run to and from Stratford, Victoria Coach Station, Liverpool Street Station and Golders Green (all in London), costing half as much as the train but taking rather longer. The bus/coach station is adjacent to the terminal building. National Express runs scheduled but infrequent direct coach services to the airport from Oxford as service JL757, taking about three hours, and hourly services to and from Cambridge. Stansted is connected to northeast London and Cambridge by the M11 motorway and to Colchester and Harwich by the A120 dual-carriageway. The access from the motorway has recently been improved with a new grade-separated junction. The long term car park is situated about a mile from the terminal and passengers need to allow at least twenty minutes to park and use a courtesy bus shuttle service prior to check-in. There are short term car parks next to the terminal building.

Terminal

Harwich Stansted International Airport has one terminal. The terminal facilities include a bureau de change, left luggage service, several shops and restaurants as well as internet access. Car hire and taxis can also be arranged from within the terminal building. The terminal building was designed by Foster Associates and features a "floating" roof, supported by a space frame of inverted-pyramid roof trusses. The base of each truss structure is a "utility pillar", which provides indirect uplighting illumination and is the location for air-conditioning and water, telecommunications, and electrical outlets. The layout of the airport is designed to provide an unobstructed flow for passengers to arrive at the short-stay car park, move through the check-in hall and on to the departure gates all on the same level. However, the airport has never catered for spectators or those wishing to watch friends depart.

Hijackings

The size of Stansted means that an aircraft can be isolated from the terminal and the usual parking stands. Stansted also has purpose-built facilities for dealing with hijacked planes. As such the airport is the designated destination for at-risk flights approaching London. On several occasions hijacked planes and planes carrying bomb threats have been diverted to land at Stansted, sometimes from other European countries. These incidents have all ended with no loss of life. Nevertheless the airport frequently practices handling major security alerts in conjunction with Essex police.

Airlines and destinations

Scheduled service


- Air Berlin (Berlin Tegel, Düsseldorf, Hanover, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Paderborn, Palma)
- Air Malta (Malta)
- CSA Czech Airlines (Prague)
- Cyprus Airways (Larnaca, Paphos)
- Eastern Airways (Manchester)
- EasyJet (Alicante, Almeria, Asturias, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bari, Basel, Belfast, Bilbao, Bologna, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Faro, Glasgow, Grenoble, Ibiza, Ljubljana, Lyon, Málaga, Munich, Naples, Newcastle, Nice, Palma, Prague, Tallinn, Valencia)
- El Al (Tel Aviv)
- Euromanx (Isle of Man)
- Flyglobespan (Edinburgh, Geneva, Glasgow, Tenerife)
- Germanwings (Cologne, Stuttgart)
- Iceland Express (Reykjavik)
- Kıbrıs Türk Hava Yolları (Antalya, Dalaman, Izmir)
- MALÉV Hungarian Airlines (Budapest
- Norwegian (Bergen, Oslo, Trondheim)
- Ryanair (Aarhus, Alghero, Almeria, Altenburg, Ancona, Barcelona, Bergerac, Berlin Schönefeld, Biarritz, Brescia, Brindisi, Brno, Bydgoszcz, Carcassonne, Cork, Derry, Dinard, Dublin, Eindhoven, Erfurt, Esbjerg, Forli, Frankfurt Hahn, Friedrichshafen, Gdańsk, Genoa, Girona, Glasgow-Prestwick, Gothenburg City, Granada, Graz, Grenoble, Haugesund, Jerez, Karlsruhe, Kerry, Klagenfurt, Knock, Kraków, La Rochelle, Limoges, Linz, Łódź, Lüebeck, Malmö, Milan Bergamo, Montpellier, Munster, Murcia, Niederrhein, Newquay, Nimes, Oporto, Oslo Torp, Palermo, Pau, Perpignan, Pescara, Pisa, Poitiers, Poznań, Reus, Riga, Rochefort, Rodez, Rome Ciampino, Rzeszów, Salzburg, Santander, Shannon, St Etienne, Stockholm Skavsta, Szczecin, Tampere, Toulon, Tours, Trieste, Turin, Valencia, Valladolid, Venice, Wrocław, Zaragoza)
- Transavia (Rotterdam)

Charter operators


- 2wentys (Corfu, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kos, Larnaca, Palma, Zakynthos)
- Air Adriatic
- Airways Holidays (Jersey)
- Alternative Travel
- Amathus
- Anemone Airlines (Larnaca, Paphos)
- Argo Airlines (Corfu, Heraklion, Kos, Larnaca, Paphos, Zakynthos)
- Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands)
- Aurigny Air Services (Guernsey)
- Avro (Arrecife, Faro, Mahon, Palma, Tenerife)
- Balkan Holidays (Bourgas)
- Basiq Air
- Belleaire (Malta)
- Canadian Affair (Vancouver)
- Celtic Holidays (Mahon)
- Channel Islands Travel
- Citalia
- Club 18-30 (Corfu, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kos, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Palma, Rhodes, Tenerife, Zakynthos)
- Club Freestyle (Bodrum, Corfu, Dalaman, Heraklion, Ibiza, Las Palmas, Palma, Tenerife)
- Cosmos Airlines (Corfu, Faro, Mahon, Palma)
- Crystal Airlines (Verona)
- CTA Holidays (Antalya, Dalaman, Izmir)
- Cyplon (Larnaca, Paphos)
- Direct Holidays
- Eclipse Direct
- Eos Airlines (New York JFK)
- Escapades (Heraklion, Ibiza, Larnaca, Palma, Rhodes, Tenerife)
- First Choice Airways (Arrecife, Bodrum, Bourgas, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kos, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Mahon, Palma, Paphos, Reus, Rhodes, Tenerife, Zakynthos)
- Flybe
- Fly Niki (Vienna)
- Flying Finn
- Freedom Flights (Arrecife, Corfu, Dalaman, Heraklion, Kos, Larnaca, Palma, Paphos, Tenerife, Zakynthos)
- Golden Sun
- Goldtrail
- Greece & Cyprus Travel (Larnaca, Paphos)
- Helios Airways (Larnaca)
- Holiday Options (Calvi, Olbia)
- Holidays for Less (Arrecife, Faro, Fuerteventura, Ibiza, Larnaca, Mahon, Monastir, Palma, Paphos, Reus, Rhodes, Tenerife, Zakynthos)
- Inghams (Budapest, Friedrichshafen, Ljubljana, Munich, Pisa, Reus, Rome Ciampino, Trieste, Verona)
- Jersey Choice</