The time for studies and investigations and assessments has long gone. These should have been done 25 years ago, the decision taken 20 years ago and the runway enter service 15 years ago.
We need action and we need it now - even on environmental grounds. The airlines are burning $5m per month going around in curcles and dumping CO2 needlessly into the atmosphere. Additional capacity, strongly managed to prevent the current situation ocurring again, is needed now. Heathrow is already scheduled to 98.5% of its capacity; this leaves nothing for error or disruption caused by wx or incident and the passenger experience at Heathrow is now shocking as a result.
The ATC system is under unacceptable pressure to deliver perfect service all the time and this is leading to corner cutting on safety. There is much evidence to support that claim.
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