Some interesting stuff in that MEN write-up, MANFOD. Thanks for the link. When you stop to think about it … GBP 7.8 BILLION for one new runway at LGW (and a forecast that it will cost more!). The streets of London may not be paved with gold, but to cost that much the runways must be. One more LHR runway … GBP 17 BILLION and rising. These figures must include buying and demolishing Sussex and Middlesex respectively. How much did MAN's 23L/05R cost again? What an absolute bargain! At the end of the day, a runway is a relatively simple project from a construction point of view … those stellar sums must relate to land acquisition costs and lining the pockets of several hundred lawyers. With those price-tags, would either runway ever truly justify its cost? Because there are alternatives however sub-optimal they might be.
On a lighter note, does anyone know if Andrew Cowan is OK? That photographer could've warned him he was about to get squashed by a Dash 8.
sarah19981 … Don't take too much notice of SHE-on-a-Pole. I despatch her to work the clubs each night. I rely on her immoral earnings to keep me in champagne and lobsters. But she knows even less than me about planes!