On my last few departures from Ringway noticed departing aircraft being in a queue waiting to take off and being held up by a landing aircraft (as if there was only one runway) while the second runway was unused!
There must be some MAN dogs on this forum who are more familiar than I am on this, but is there not a restriction on operating hours of the second runway - part of the Section 106 (if they were called that then) that allowed it to be built in the first place? Also, are there no some restriction on type, also relating to noise constraints. Therefore, it might be long enough, but can it deliver the goods?
Buster - totally agree about LCY and the conditions, that runway is more than capable of serving the destinations LCY wants to serve, with the obvious exception of JFK, but the A318 wasn't previously on their types list anyway...
What about DSA? I know the runway was there as RAF Finningley, but it is still a new airport in the commercial sense, and weren't there some major works done on the runway too before opening?