....Two hubs work in Germany
The airspace around Frankfurt was full so they moved the capacity partially to where demand originated, Munich hit 37M pax last year from a standing start because there was the will to make it happen.
It's the same in the UK, 40% of LHR pax do actually originate or complete there journeys in the NWest, but historically Heathrow grew as the mega hub and now everybody is so interwinned it cannot be unravelled.
Here in the UK the two hub concept is dead simply because there are to many vested interests.
As an example BA talk about a "UK Aviation Policy" its hogwash, if they get a 3rd runway it will add more profit to the bottom line and even if the return is totally dispproportinate to the impact then so be it...
It's not even going to be a proper runway for goodness sake.
Plus as I keep saying what about the airspace capacity, NATS have indicated that they will make it work once they know what the structure on the ground will be like, but that sounds suspiciously like " we actually havnt got a clue".
What it will mean is a reduction in slots elsewhere so hands up Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, London City, Southend sorry you are going to have to give way !
One thing we can all agree in ..its an utter shambles !
- The airlines dont want split cost so want LHR expanded
- The proposal for RW3 is pisspoor if you are going to expand LHR at least put 3 RWs in !
- Boris Island, great but who will move, nobody from LHR will unless forced and that will fall down in the courts
- We built a new airport 15 years ago at Stansted, complete and utter waste of space in terms of fixing this problem