Britain’s largest UK airport operator BAA has recently chosen Mitsubishi’s award-winning L200 pick-ups as its ‘leader vehicles’ for Heathrow airport, where they can be seen carrying out a variety of duties on the airfield perimeters and runways.

Operated by Heathrow’s airside operations department, the L200’s primary role is to escort aeroplanes to and from the runways to their stands. The vehicles are also intended to enable staff to carry out various airfield checks, such as observing surface conditions and collecting debris.

The vehicles are likely to be in use almost around the clock and, to ensure high visibility, all have been painted bright yellow and had light bars fitted to the roof.

A spokesman for Heathrow said: “After considering a number of vehicles, the Mitsubishi L200 was chosen primarily because it is available with an excellent automatic and four-wheel-drive transmission system. We have tried using other manual gearbox vehicles before, but these have proved to be unreliable.”

He added: “As each one covers approximately 25,000 Miles per year – with different drivers – reliability is a very important factor for us, as vehicle down-time can be very disrupting to the operation of the airfield.”

In addition to the mechanical capabilities of the L200, BAA were also impressed with the fuel consumption and emissions achieved, which was another key feature in its decision to purchase Mitsubishi pick-ups.

This latest order brings the number of Mitsubishis in operation at Heathrow, by far the most demanding of all UK airports, up to 45. Toby Marshall, General Manager – National Fleet and Used Car Sales for Mitsubishi Motors UK said:

“This recent deal with BAA is a great endorsement for Mitsubishi. This now means we have vehicles operating at every major commercial airport in the UK – you could say that Mitsubishis have really taken off with the airport industry.”

BAA has found the L200s so ideal for its airside operations, it has just ordered another six.