Aeromad
silverstrata, the issue of fog simply isn't imaginery. It's ironic that you're arguing about this now, when much of the south-east has been shrouded in the stuff including Sheppey where you want to plonk this airport!!
And including LHR, which cancelled hundreds of flights.
The point is that a much larger airport, that is not capacity restricted like LHR, would not have to reduce traffic flows during Low Vis opps. Had this recent fog blanketed a much larger Thames airport, there would have been no flight cancellations.
So what is your problem?
Skipness:
Your rant about domestic access to Heathrow rather ignores the fact that English domestic flying into London almost ceased overnight when the East and West coast rail lines were upgraded. Indeed VLM's very profitable LCY-MAN and LCY-LPL ended abruptly soon after.
LCY has nothing to to do with Heathrow. Of course it is quicker by train to London, but it is NOT quicker by train to LHR (because of all the changes, see my earlier post).
The point is that it is now easier to interline via CDG or AMS, because many low cost carriers go there and you can easily pick up your long haul fight. Thus LHR is loosing out big time, because it has no more capacity to take the smaller and lower cost feeder airlines. And if LHR is losing out, then so (eventually) is the City of London and the UK as a whole.
A larger Thames airport would, of course, have the capacity to undercut AMS and CDG.
Skipness:
OK, please re-read what I have said above and stop insulting me, play the ball and not the man.
What you said was:
There are no "short" runways at CDG.
If you don't want to be shot down in flames, then don't overfly the flak batteries.
Skipness:
No one would want to fly GLA-LHR-CDG if they could fly GLA-CDG direct, which they can.
Eh??? Your getting close to the flak batteries again. We are talking international interlining here.
Skipness:
Against Ryanair and easyJet? Are you serious? If you are suggesting people connect via AMS and CDG to fly to the US, they use KLM or AF, not the locos you quoted.
You're way behind the drag-curve on this one, Skippy. One of the big markets now is Lo-Co** flyers jumping into Schippy And Charlie to go Stateside (or elsewhere).
Why do you think that Schiphol went to the trouble of building a special 'terminal' for Lo-Co fliers? Why do you think that a nation of only 15 million has such a large airline? And that is all market share that LHR has lost, because it has no capacity for regional aircraft.
** They are called Lo-Co flyers for obvious reasons. I would not step on one, but then many people simply gravitate to the cheapest routes.
Skippy
(The fog) might look imaginary from LA but since I couldn't see the top of 1 Canada Square this morning, and there were a load of go arounds last night when I was at LCY (on the Thames in case you were wondering) I think it might be real...
Come off it Skippy - you are right overhead the flack batteries with that comment, and I am sorely tempted to open fire.
How the hell do you think you can do a Cat IIIb autoland from a 6 degree glideslope onto an 1100m runway of half width ?!?
Think about it, Skippy, think about it.
Jabird
Which EU are you talking about? The one I know of is not a single homogenous region.
Hey, Jabird, this is a 70-year project. For planning purposes, all of Europe is domestic.
Gordon
Silverstrata gives his age as 43.
Never ask a lady or a pilot their age - you might get an answer you don't like, especially if you are the SLF just settling down to a G&T.
Prophead
I cant help feeling that the whole thames island plan is being proposed in order to show just how ludicrously expensive it will be so that the government can then revert back to the third runway plan and act as though it is saving money.
There are some of that opinion jumping on the bandwagon. But I can assure you that Boris is quite sincere in this proposal.
London does not have an inalienable right to be the financial center of Europe, and if it becomes a nightmare to get there, and to get anywhere else from there, then London will become a financial backwater. And if that happens, then the UK sinks without trace - especially as successive governments have destroyed our once fine manufacturing industries.
As I said before - a nation that stands still, is going backwards. And the UK has been going backwards for a couple of decades now.
Rather than being a 'fantasy island', a central hub that combines air, rail, road, and potentially even sea links, could generate the UK a great deal of money.
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