New runway at Heathrow

[Kendhni]

Story here
OK, it is still probably years away but should we allow airports to expand as and when required. Economically it makes sense but not if the local residents are unhappy. Having said that we rarely use Heathrow these days (once in the last 15 years - usually fly out of Gatwick).

Maybe they should consider putting it in Liverpool along side the cruise terminal

[david63]

This will always be a "no win" argument as it is mostly a NIMBY argument.

It also seems a somewhat contradictory discussion as on one hand the world's governments are trying to reduce carbon emissions (which is another discussion altogether) yet on the other hand encourage more emissions by providing more facilities for aircraft.

Surely the argument should revolve around the use of the facilities that we have at the moment with questions being asked as to why we have to fly so many unnecessary things (such as fruit and vegetables) half way round the world every day. If we were to reduce the number of these flights then there would be more capacity for passenger aircraft.

[towny44]

Yes of course Heathrow should have a new runway or even 2, if the locals don't like it let them vote with their feet, there are plenty of slum properties in the north, well away from airports, that would benefit from new owners.

[Dark Knight]

great

do politicians not realise there is a whole country outside of the home counties
yet another insular move, what about Manchester or Birmingham to help create jobs and to spread the wealth a bit?

[towny44]

great

do politicians not realise there is a whole country outside of the home counties
yet another insular move, what about Manchester or Birmingham to help create jobs and to spread the wealth a bit?

DK, I suggest you pop down to Heathrow and check with the great majority of passengers about their views on arriving at Manchester or perhaps Robin Hood airport. Even if you find one that knows where Manchester is I doubt they would be happy to be deposited so far away from their preferred international hub. So stick to pension bashing and let market forces dictate which airports need expansion. Whatever happened to the UK's politically planned second international airport at Prestwick, is this currently operating at capacity????

[Dark Knight]

Towny
perhaps if people looked further than the south of England, then the current economic situation could be eased by generating jobs and work in other areas
or is that not what this is about, is it just another perk for the south?
funnily enough 90% of the manufacturing indusrty is north of Watford gap and the south is a service industry, nothing more

[david63]

DK, I suggest you pop down to Heathrow and check with the great majority of passengers about their views on arriving at Manchester or perhaps Robin Hood airport. Even if you find one that knows where Manchester is I doubt they would be happy to be deposited so far away from their preferred international hub.

If that is true then why are there so many "International" passengers using the shuttle to get to Manchester? Perhaps another suggestion to ease Heathrow would be to have more international flights into the regional airports - that way would be win-win as there would be less international flights AND less domestic flights thus creating more capacity for additional flights.

[towny44]

DK, I suggest you pop down to Heathrow and check with the great majority of passengers about their views on arriving at Manchester or perhaps Robin Hood airport. Even if you find one that knows where Manchester is I doubt they would be happy to be deposited so far away from their preferred international hub.

If that is true then why are there so many "International" passengers using the shuttle to get to Manchester? Perhaps another suggestion to ease Heathrow would be to have more international flights into the regional airports - that way would be win-win as there would be less international flights AND less domestic flights thus creating more capacity for additional flights.

David, If your information is fact rather than fantasy then I am sure that airlines would be flocking to fill the demand. There are already hundreds of international flights each week into our regional airports, with lots of matching onward flights to Europe for passengers using our regional airports as a hub. Most airlines have much better IT systems than P&O, so they are well able to measure the demand for extra flights, which is why there are now many more international flights to our regional airports than 10 years ago.
As I said let the market gauge the demand and then allow government to make a sensible economic decision, rather than pander to the NIMBYs and even people like yourself and DK who for very humanitarian reasons think Govt. should always try to influence industry and business to spread jobs thinly over the whole country. It seldom works well, although there are some very good examples like Nissan and Sunderland where it has, but they are few and far between.

[Kendhni]

I thought there had been something said a few years back that the air corridors above the UK were already full and air traffic control was stretched ... if that was the case then were would the extra capacity come from?

[Dark Knight]

I find it odd that outlying ariports such as Stanstead and Gatwick are classed as london airports as they are miles away
Why not develop Birmingham and Manchester, If all heathrow is is a hub then you can leave it as such, and open up the country ,as travellers using hubs rarely stay over and are only interested in going to their next destiantion quickly
which oddly enough is the way I feel when I have to use Heathrow

[david63]

John

The number of international passengers using the shuttle to Manchester was certainly true earlier this year when we were coming back from NZ

[towny44]

John

The number of international passengers using the shuttle to Manchester was certainly true earlier this year when we were coming back from NZ

Did you interview them all to check if they had just arrived or if the trip to Manchester was a minor part of their overall travel plans? Of course if they had arrived by BA then I can understand why they would be using the shuttle as BA have very few international flights out of anywhere other than Heathrow, however lobbying BA to introduce more regional international flights only leads to wet trousers.

[david63]

John

The number of international passengers using the shuttle to Manchester was certainly true earlier this year when we were coming back from NZ

Did you interview them all to check if they had just arrived or if the trip to Manchester was a minor part of their overall travel plans? Of course if they had arrived by BA then I can understand why they would be using the shuttle as BA have very few international flights out of anywhere other than Heathrow, however lobbying BA to introduce more regional international flights only leads to wet trousers.

Didn't need to interview some of them as they were on the same flight as us from Hong Kong

[Silver_Shiney]

I've said this before, what's wrong with using Northolt for short-haul?

[Holiday Planner]

I'm happy for all the airports mentioned to build new runways ... it will keep my husband (an Airport Design Engineer) in work, and me in cruises

[Quizzical Bob]

I've said this before, what's wrong with using Northolt for short-haul?

Hub, innit.

[Kendhni]

What about kicking everybody off the Isle of Wight and turning it into an airport

[Silver_Shiney]

What about kicking everybody off the Isle of Wight and turning it into an airport

That would never work.

There are insufficient prison spaces on the mainland.

Where else would HK store all her tat?

[Dark Knight]

Ken
apart from subjecting the mainland to a sudden rush of Tat and convicts
how do they get from the IOW to the glowing metropolis that is London, coz reading some of the tripe on here, that is the only place in the UK they could possibly want to be??, maybe they could be an IOW tunnel with a very long moving walkway for all the jet setters, right into the shining jewel of the south, that way they would not have to see the rest of the UK and would thankfully remain blissfully ignorant of the rest of the country and just clog up darn sarf ?