Unjustified Third Runway Furore
The consent to a third runway at Heathrow Airport was neither a surprise nor was the reaction to it by local residents, environmentalists and a handful of failed television “celebrities” who’d bought up land to prevent construction ever taking place.
“The U.K. Government made the right decision. The third runway allows Heathrow to grow, and, more importantly, it will be an enormous economic catalyst by better connecting the London and U.K. economies to global business,“ said IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani.
Since being taken over by Spanish group Ferrovial, airport operator BAA has had a pretty awful time over the last twelve months, marred largely by the almighty “blame-game” between itself and British Airways over the opening of Terminal Five last March. Already operating at some 97% of its full capacity, Heathrow has lagged behind its European counterparts in investment and expansion and some like me argue that a third runway is already a quarter of a century too late to the game.
“For too long it [Heathrow] has operated at full capacity, losing ground to international hub airports in other countries and with relatively minor problems causing severe delays to passengers,” said Geoff Hoon, Transport Secretary in announcing the go-ahead.
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Frankfurt Airport too has recently announced plans for a new fourth runway, further highlighting the gulf between itself and the overloaded Heathrow and the way in which growth is managed.
Even the plans by the Conservative party for glamorous high speed rail links around the country fail to address the simple fact that it is air travel that has grown considerably faster than any other mode of transport, despite the recent economic pressures and has far outstripped the potential Heathrow has to accommodate that growth.
Creating a new airport would present new headaches and isn’t an answer for the short term.
“Failure of successive UK Governments that owned Heathrow airport until 1987 to plan for increased numbers of passengers and increase aircraft take-off and landing capacity reasons many of the problems that long suffering passengers have needlessly suffered at Heathrow for years,” says senior strategist Howard Wheeldon.
“Growth may be stunted for a while, but make no mistake it will take off again. Which is why planning for that future growth is crucial and why from a competitive standpoint the government is right to indicate that it remains minded to back the third runway proposal,” he adds.
Image courtesy of the BBC
How many of these eco-stars, like Emma Thompson, protesting at Heathrow’s growth actually use the airport to fly out to the big wide world out there for their theatre and other commitments?
“I call that a real slap in the face to every citizen in this country who has been doing their best to cut back on their own emissions,“ Emma Thompson exclaims.
“I think it’s the most egregious piece of hypocrisy I’ve seen in a long time.”
Rather equally hypocritical of her and others to suddenly “buy up” land in the vain hope of stifling the inevitable removal of the dwindling village of Sipson to make way for the new runway.
In essence, the only way to ensure that Heathrow gets the (long awaited) expansion that it so desperately needs is to have Governmental iron-fist support to force through this development at all costs. The risks of not doing so do not bear thinking about. For too long Heathrow has been losing ground to the European mainland and cannot afford to be saddled with needless distractions from environmentalists who have a poor grasp of their own argument.
The quicker the new runway is built, the better it will be for workers, airlines, passengers and everyone else connected to Heathrow.
4 comments January 19th, 2009
