There is absolutely no evidence that you need a single large airport to be successful - see Switzerland, the USA, Germany, China
These countries, and others, do not have one dominant city (usually the capital) that is several times larger than the second city, as is the case with
most of Skipness’s list, so the airports set-up is obviously going to be different
.
Just curious.
Does anybody have a glimmer of how long it will take to pay for the cheaper of the two runway options ?
Apparently there are some issues about patents for the extended-then-split rwy scheme, so there's potential for years of litigation should it emerge as the favoured scheme.
However this option offers only 700,000 total annual movements compared to 740,000 for the northwest rwy.
So in reality, it’s impossible to compare like with like.
Fairdealfrank
I do not think you will see passengers flocking back to LHR even if they do get a new runway as habits have changed. Few of us going East want to spend 5 hrs + travelling and still be in the UK. On my "normal" commute East I am sitting having my cheese course over Bulgaria with a glass of Port after 5hrs, not being told by "Nigel" that we are awaiting a tug, or that we are 20th in line for take off. Even with a new run way I would not return.
Would say that when "going east" you should be a great deal further north of Bulgaria, unless you’re doing the dog leg on EK, EY, QR, etc. (see GCM if you think this is wrong).
It appears that the airport operators and carriers clearly disagree with you,
because with LHR expansion, all that you complain about goes away.
The point that millions of pax, old and new will have increased choices of destinations, hubs, timings and prices, with LHR expansion is valid and still stands.