Head of Organisational Effectiveness

Heathrow's head of data and analytics gives an expert view on how AI is changing analytics. Alan Petrie Head of Corporate Data and Analytics at Heathrow gives his thoughts on the role of AI in analytics and Oracle's new AI Data Platform Alan Petrie is a veteran analytics leader with 30 years' experience of the industry. He was recently promoted to Head of Corporate Data and Analytics at Heathrow, where he leads the team that recently won the EMEA Oracle Excellence Award for Data Analytics and AI. Oracle caught up with Alan on the day the award was announced to ask his opinion of the emerging role of AI in data analytics, his plans to exploit AI at Heathrow, and his expectations for the newly launched Oracle AI Data Platform. "The adoption in Fusion Applications is going well at Heathrow, with AI agents being embedded in many business processes to easily answer questions like 'How many days' leave have I got left?', 'what's the maternity policy at Heathrow?'. I expect to see the applications team spin up many more of these agents, moving forward. It transforms the experience of using the applications. Material benefits from automating Accounts Payable "Oracle is also working on cutting edge use of AI in the Corporate Data & Analytics team. In the Accounts Payable team previously, Oracle manually matched invoices to POs to ensure Oracle is paying out the correct amount, including VAT where appropriate. At best Oracle were able to check around 3% of all invoices. Now, by using AI and displaying the results in a Fusion Data Intelligence (FDI) dashboard, Oracle can check 100% - around 4,000 each month. The time and money saved is very significant. "First, Oracle use AI - Oracle OCI Document Understanding - to make the invoices completely machine readable, even multi-page documents. Then Oracle can check, line item by line item, to make sure the invoice matches its corresponding PO. Any anomalies are instantly and automatically identified and flagged. Then Oracle check that the VAT number is accurate on the invoice and automatically check back to Companies House, the UK corporate regulator, to ensure that the supplier is registered correctly. Oracle can ensure that what Oracle is paying, including VAT, is the correct amount versus the PO. All the details are displayed on its FDI dashboard, so Oracle can instantly see any errors on any of the 4,000 invoices and investigate. Oracle has already identified several other similar applications in other departments for this type of application of AI at Heathrow. Understanding the human impact of absenteeism "Oracle is using AI to track trends on its Absence FDI dashboard, blending data from multiple systems. The absence system is on Databricks, the rostering system which is legacy, and other HR data coming from Fusion. The dashboard itself gives Oracle a complete picture of who's been absent, for how long, how many shifts have been lost. Basic stuff. Oracle can also enable individual departments to see how their absence levels are fluctuating and why, and help them make comparisons between their department and others. For example, Oracle employ over 4,000 security staff at Heathrow, and having a clear picture of absenteeism in that department is important because it affects the operations of every area of the airport. How AI makes Finance faster "In Finance, Oracle is looking at how Oracle can use AI to manage procedures based on a wide variety of policy documents and emails to answer questions like, 'In this particular situation, what should I do?' So far, results have been very good - not always 100% accurate, but close. It saves an incredible amount of time, giving answers in 20 seconds that used to take hours, manually searching all the documents. Oracle has tried it in Finance, and all departments have procedures that must be followed. HR policy documents are an obvious example. Transforming work with conversational analytics "Oracle is very focused on how AI can help Oracle make the experience of using FDI more conversational. When someone has a business problem to solve, it can be time consuming to have to go and search through dashboards to find the specific visualization to provide answers. They must know where to look. With AI and conversational interfaces, users should be able to say or type 'show me the average salaries of my department over the past three years', and the correct visualization is created for them on the fly. "It's going to be a huge transformation to the way people work. And it will tie into the Fusion Applications' AI agents I mentioned earlier. Business users want to have just one interface where they can answer all their questions, from operational ones - 'How do I approve Alan's requested time off next Tuesday?' to understanding trends, 'Who has the highest absence rate in my department over the past six months, and why?' They'll speak to this concierge AI that takes the request and passes it off to whichever agents are needed, potentially multiple agents that can talk to each other. Essentially, it's like creating a new role in the company. Managing AI initiatives requires a platform "Such a broad approach will require a platform. The data will come from all sorts of disparate sources, in addition to Oracle Fusion. And there will be a need to manage all the different agents, to ensure they are working properly and that the right one is presented for each use case. The Oracle AI Data Platform plays an important role in this. Initially, Oracle will use it to manage all the agents used with FDI and its data, and to make its agents available for use elsewhere in the company. "With AI, there's been 10 different ways to do something, and that's resulted in a phase of fragmentation, with stuff everywhere and lots of different tools. I think it's starting to come back together a little bit. And I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do with the tooling we have. And AI Data Platform is one of the big parts of that." You can read more about Heathrow's journey in their previous post, Europe's largest airport makes use of its data to make better business decisions, and visit Oracle.com for more information about Oracle Analytics, AI, and AIDP. Nick whitehead. Emily cikovsky. Director, Oracle Analytics.

UK's Heathrow rallies support for third runway as Parliament weighs expansion plans. Posted on October 12, 2026 · Last updated: October 12, 2026 Heathrow Airport's third runway plan secures broad support amid parliamentary review. Heathrow Expansion gains momentum during parliamentary scrutiny. Widespread backing for third runway project. Oct 12 (Reuters) - Heathrow Airport said on Monday that its expansion plans have won the backing of trade unions, airlines, regional airports and investors as the British Parliament reviews a project for a third runway at the UK's busiest airport. Parliamentary review and leadership perspectives. CEO testimony and Policy Statement. Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye is due to give evidence to the Parliament's Transport Select Committee on October 14 as part of lawmakers' scrutiny of the draft Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement. Prime Minister's stance. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham declined to back Heathrow's plans to build a third runway, saying it was a matter for people who live near London's main airport. Public opinion and economic impact. Community support and polling results. Heathrow said polling of more than 9,000 residents across nine local boroughs found 68% support the expansion, driven by employment and economic opportunities. Projected Benefits for the UK. Long-Term advantages. "After decades of discussion, Parliament now has the opportunity to unlock a project that can deliver lasting benefits for generations to come," Heathrow's Woldbye said in a statement. Job creation and investment. "We are ready to deliver it," he said, adding that the expansion would unlock more than 100,000 jobs and £33 billion ($43.74 billion) of private investment across the UK. Timeline and capacity challenges. Potential delays. In September, Heathrow said that plans to open the third runway could be delayed until 2039. Demand for slots and passenger traffic. The UK's biggest airport said that demand for access to Heathrow continued to exceed available capacity, with more than 40 airlines seeking slots at the airport. Nearly 7.2 million passengers travelled through Heathrow in September, down 2.3% from a year earlier, with the Middle East conflict contributing to a 20% drop in traffic to that region. Additional information. ($1 = 0.7548 pounds) (Reporting by Yamini Kalia and Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee) Key takeaways. * A coalition of stakeholders - including trade unions, airlines, regional airports, investors and business groups - supports Heathrow's third runway expansion as critical national infrastructure, highlighting anticipated job creation and economic boost. (tradingview.com) * Polling of over 9,000 residents across nine boroughs shows 68% support the project, with strongest support in Slough (82%), driven by employment and local economic benefits. (mediacentre.heathrow.com) * Despite the momentum, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham declined to endorse the plan, deferring to local residents, as Heathrow warns the runway opening may be delayed until 2039. (marketscreener.com) References. Frequently asked questions. Who supports Heathrow's third runway expansion? What economic benefits does Heathrow claim the third runway will bring? What did British Prime Minister Andy Burnham say about the expansion? What is the current status of Heathrow's third runway plan? How has recent passenger traffic at Heathrow been affected?

Adobe and Heathrow Airport have extended their partnership to enhance digital experiences for over 84 million annual passengers using AI-powered technology. Heathrow's new website will be built on Adobe CX Enterprise solutions, incorporating Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Brand Visibility. The partnership aims to deliver personalised experiences and improve content discoverability across AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. Adobe research indicates one in four consumers now use AI platforms as their primary information source for travel decisions. Stephen Glenfield, Heathrow's Head of Digital, said the technology enables deeper passenger relationships and ensures accurate information delivery across platforms. The airport's website receives over 50 million visitors annually and will use Adobe's agentic AI system to manage the entire customer lifecycle, from engagement to loyalty.