Originally Posted by Buster the Bear
Lots of work going on in the background to increase the airspace capacity in and around London. There was a plan a couple of years back which went out to consultation, but I understand although these plans were delayed, their implementation will occur in the future?
So, let me get this right.....
There was a proposal which went out to consultation and, as I recall, was objected to by many people on many different grounds and then 'withdrawn' in some way to get it out of the public eye. And Buster says that the plans were only 'delayed' and will happen in the future.
Which does make one wonder what the point of the consultation was. Is it just something that's done so that someone can put a tick in the box before going ahead regardless?
Or is it something that the regulators insist on before being told what will happen by the Government of the day based on whatever decision is calculated to win them the most votes?
The trouble with consultations involving aviation and a number of other industries is that the topic is highly emotive and there is no way to please everybody or, some regulators would have it, address all concerns that are raised. And the valid issues raised by professionals are often given no greater credibility that those raised by total crackpots. Whether any good comes of such consultations is arguable; the huge cost of running a public consultation, which ultimately has to be paid by someone, is not.
Returning to the original question, from what I know - although I've never worked in the London TMA - the airspace constraints that have been mentioned by some other posters will be difficult to overcome without a significant change to some of the widely held principles and/or freedoms claimed by some people. Maybe a more significant problem is the limited gains in movements that a third runway would be likely to provide - something that in my experience is not understood by the layperson.
And, finally, although it's a good while since I transited through or travelled to the UK via London, it seems to me that it's the ground infrastructure that cannot support many more pax.