Vested interests
All this talk of the 3rd runway is nothing more than government lobbying by BA and BAA. Expanding LHR has nothing to do with the economy as LGW is already taking up the slack from LHR on Asia routes by offering Vietnam Airlines, Air China, Korean and Hong Kong Airlines. The new owners at LGW no doubt have more Asian routes lined up and even Cameron himself suggested that LGW is rapidly becoming a business airport. If the routes to China were as lucrative as BA would have you suggest then where is the expansion along with Virgin into these new cities? CAN is coming online in June but that is offered by China Southern, why not BA? BAA's interest stems from more planes which equals more lucrative revenue from landing slots,more passengers which equals more shoppers to spend money in the airport which eqauls more profit and more dividends for shareholders. None of this has anything to do with the UK's competitiveness and access to other growing trading nations. We have LGW, STN and other airports around the UK which are suitable for long haul expansion and can take up the slack quite easily.