Quote: "More like anti political
Politicians are more concerned with getting elected and getting remembered for grandiose projects than doing stuff that will help people...............HS2 is a classical point.
The actual cost of the Heathrow project is a guesstimate with £1-2 billion minimum.
Rather than spending billions on a grandiose scheme with a precieved claim of improving competitiveness a better use of the limited resources is investing in real education and real R&D to rebuild competitiveness.
Sadly none of this will be done and billions will be spent for the now 30% of passengers travelling through LHR which give nothing to the economy."
The point is, racedo and it's important, is that LHR expansion is private sector money. Unlike the HS2, the Olympics, etc., and other government projects/follies this will cost taxpayers nothing.
Can we put this "transfer pax"-knocking to bed please, we've been over it ad nauseum. They make some routes viable when otherwise they would not be, and that gives more choice to OD traffic. It benefits UK carriers who hub at LHR i.e. BA, BD, VS.
Quote: "So what if LHR loses 20 flights a day to CDG of transit passengers, run LHR so it adds real value rather than spending money so you can claim ego by being biggest in Europe. Time for reality rather than Willy waving."
It has nothing to do with "Willy waving", it affects the real economy. There are 70,000 jobs on the airport and over 100,000 directly related. Over and above that many companies are based in the Thames Valley because of the convenience of LHR on the doorstep, and the range of destination it offers.
If LHR is to be run "so it adds real value" it needs to be enlarged so that it is not running at 98-99% capacity (compared to 70-75% in the cases of AMS, CDG and FRA). The congestion needs to be reduced and this can only be done two ways: expansion, or a mass reduction in slot availability which easier said than done (who decides who loses slots, decisions open to legal challenges, etc.).
Two more runways are needed now: 2 for landings, 2 for takeoffs; existing for large aircraft, the new ones for any (they would be shorter).
Let's get them built as soon as.