At least the "locals" will be footing the bill.
Frank...note that reference to "outrageous costs"!
Or does WW know nothing.
Just a footnote from the spending review.
Chancellor mentioned expansion of infastructure in road, rail, energy, rivers and flood defences..... interestingly no mention of runways!
I would have thought they would have made political capital from mentioning Heathrow and
"expanding our airports".
Dear oh dear, Bagso, are you really still banging on about infrastructure costs? Haven't we done this to death? Move on!
Willie Walsh obviously knows a lot,
clearly a lot more than us. Try and see it from his point of view: his bosses, the shareholders expect dividends. Higher costs for IAG could mean lower dividends for shareholders.
Higher airport charges will pay for the rwy not UK taxpayers (this is a consequence of privately owned airports) and IAG will pay a large proportion of these although this will not significantly effect IAG's viability.
Walsh also knows that IAG has
nowhere else to go and that, in reality, IAG will have to "suck it up". So for shareholders' benefit, he has to go through the motions. Of course if the third rwy ever materialises, we'll all be long gone, or at least retired.
George Osborne did not mention rwys perhaps because the decision has not been made public as no announcements have been made. Allegedly, a decision is imminent, but don't hold your breath.
As for M4 widening, as mentioned in the Guardian article, it will be necessary anyway, those who drive on it regularly may argue that it already needs widening. The reason is simple, between junction 3 (Hounslow) and junction 8 (Maidenhead) there are 7 junctions in about 16 mi. - that's an average of one every 2 mi. near enough.
Junctions close together = lots of lane-changing = slowing down to a crawl = congestion. It's the same on the M25 in the area. So "improvements" will happen anyway. Only the M25 and A4 tunnels are rwy related.
As for the EU-funded Irish motorways, also mentioned in the Guardian article, EU bribes helped obtain "yes" votes in the various "second time" referendums on further EU integration. These were held because the "first time" referendums produced the "wrong" answer.
If it looks like the UK may vote to leave the EU, expect a load of bribes from Brussels, a good opportunity to get all UK infrastructure paid for by the EU.
The other bad thing is that with the introduction of A380's into the fleet, these all go from T5 C. There is no business lounge there. With the attitude that passengers only need to know a gate number about 50 mins before take off makes things a bit of a rush from the lounge in T5 main. About time BA got a lounge in T5 C.
Good luck with that!
It's taken 7 years to get a lounge in LHR-5 for those not allowed in the BA lounges (i.e economy and premium economy pax, blue and bronze Executive Club members). Very fair point nonetheless!