PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Another runway at Heathrow
View Single Post
Old 19th May 2015, 09:59
  #139 (permalink)  
mrshubigbus
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: UK
Posts: 112
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
There will not be another runway in the Southeast in my lifetime and that takes me up to about 2040. Going all the way back to the 1970s successive governments have backed away from making any kind of sensible decision. When I first went to the Queens Building in 1978 to watch the aircraft coming and going at LHR they were ten deep at the holding point with four or five always flying down the approach. Fast forward nearly 40 years and what has changed! Planes have got bigger and more passengers arrive and depart but there are only so many planes you can have at a holding point or flying down the approach with the existing capacity. As it currently stands, if the Davis report suggests another runway it won't be built until at least 2025 and that's optimistic to say the very least! During the past 40 years Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Madrid, Munich, Athens, Barcelona etc have all added runways while all we've done in the Southeast is add London City!
Gatwick has the dubious label as world's busiest single runway airport. with 40 million soon to pass through annually it's simply unbelievable that they have to manage with just one runway! Many US airports with similar pax numbers have three or four runways! Both labour and the Conservatives want shooting over what must what be the longest running soap opera this country has ever seen. We missed the boat years ago but still all the cock and bull carries on!
mrshubigbus is offline