By being 'green' and not building a third runway many more aircraft will continue to circle London on a hourly/weekly/yearly basis. How green is that? A much better idea would have been to have built a third runway but capped usage at 80% so that congestion/holding was eliminated. This way the UK only loses out to Frankfurt and Schipol.
Runways by Major European Air Traffic Hubs:
- Heathrow: 2
- Amsterdam: 6
- Charles de Gaulle: 4
- Frankfurt: 3 (plus one in building)
- Rome: 3