Re. the Times Business comment
But LHR has never been a proper international hub for eastbound flights beyond Europe. It is easy to see if you compare the number BA and VS destinations/frequencies to the Far East with the number of westbound flights/destinations (USA and Canada). All MEB3 have their hubs in the Middle East and no European of sound mind will fly to the Middle East to catch a flight to the US. What about 5th freedom flights then? For now Emirates has only had one 5th freedom route from Europe to the US (DXB-MXP-JFK), but in April an Italian court ruled this service "violates international aviation laws". Etihad has tried a different approach with buying shares in the four European carriers Air Berlin, Darwin Airline, Air Serbia and Aer Lingus, but we haven't seen anything else than some of them feeding Etihad at some their European destinations. Again we are talking eastbound flights, not westbound.
I think the European legacy carriers will have more problems if or when the big LCCs and charter converts starts for real with flights over the Atlantic. Since many of these are represented at LGW, and not at LHR, I may agree with the Times saying a second runway at LGW will come anyway - the only difference is that the reasoning is different. The Times is too business oriented, the real growth to 2020 and beyond you will find in the leisure market, not in the business community that have stacked up with telepresence systems and their managers find better food in their local restaurant with a star or two in the Michelin Guide than on board a plane.