Originally Posted by
tocamak
A very radical solution would be to start afresh at a site ....
Ah yes. Let's see .....
Stansted rebuilt about 1990, when Heathrow was pretty much as full as now. Stansted was empty then. Wonderful.
1. Very few mainstream carriers went there.
2. The mainstream carriers who went there found out how unpopular new, relocated aviation facilities to the east of London are but only after losing bucketloads of their stockholders money.
3. The advent of a completely new market sector, the LCCs, at Stansted did nothing reduce movements at Heathrow.
4. The airlines want to use Heathrow for one simple reason, that is where their paying customers want to go. Especially the business users.
5. The passengers don't want to go East because they don't live near there and their offices are not near there. Nor are their connecting flights (look at how few connecting pax go through Stansted).
6. The additional surface travel time to get there far outweighs any disadvantage of Heathrow. Have you ever tried to drive from say Reading to Stansted on a Friday evening ? Or to go by public transport with your baggage ?
7. The South-East surface transport infrastrucure has spent many decades adapting to Heathrow being the air traffic centre. For example a 5 mile tube extension in the 1970s and 5 mile railway branch in the 1990s. That's all that has been achieved. It would take far longer to adapt to a new location.
8. There is no nearby available housing for the tens of thousands of airport workers who currently live around Heathrow.