Originally Posted by
Prophead
Sorry but that statement is just wrong.
LHR expansion and the hub idea was being approved long before the whole 'new runway anywhere in the South East' red herring was being debated. That came from a political backdown in the face of voters under the flightpath.
The reasons for expansion at Gatwick are completely separate to the reasons for expanding LHR and it is not just a case of deciding where to put a new runway in the SE. When BAA decided to expand LHR they owned LGW also.
People don't seem to be able to differentiate between the airport business and the airlines. If a 787 can be filled on a route from Doncaster to Boston then an airline will do it regardless of what is going on at Heathrow.
A third runway will not take away the profitable point to point routes from the regions. It would probably take some LH traffic from the likes of MAN who have for a long time enjoyed too large a catchment area but that's a good thing for those fed up with an early morning trek over the M62.
Prophead what have you against having a second and major UK regional Hub admittedly supported largely via foreign carriers serving a catchment area of third of the country ?
It is the ONLY real regional airport with significant long haul built up over fourty hard years and yes there is a risk to the services down the line - nothing changes there QF and CX (now back) were encourged to pair with a certain partner carrier
Indian service were lost because of GOI interference ( needed to move migrant labour to the sandpit) some years back.
South African abandoned ship for ventures new at the end of apartheid. now effectively bankrupt!
The operator works bl**dy hard in securing service to benefit the REGION with real local jobs and benefits to the economy.
Again I can only refer you to experience with Hub and Spoke model in the US and as a French poster demonstrated above regional airports go into major decline with Hub and Spoke with loss of local jobs.
Look to Toulon an airport that barely gets 500,000 annually because AF feel they can force the local populous onto a few ATR rotations a day.
Compare to Liverpool as posted previously loss of the Heathrow shuttle ( never made money even in Cambrian days) coincided with a TEN FOLD increase in traffic with local jobs and the economy benefiting when the so called LCC carriers commenced numerous direct point to point offerings .
And what’s with the downer in the Marjority of the fare paying and travelling public that can’t afford the bath chair free newspaper sandwich and lounge experience at plus 2 ,5 and 10 times base ticket price.