Yeah, yeah, Northolt, Luton, Fairford, Filton, Manstone, Birmingham, Manchester, Greenham Common, Woodbridge/Bentwaters, Southend etc etc all have features favouring them as possible relief airports for the South-East.
Except demand. Well, OK Northolt would qualify if it weren't for all the insuperable problems of developing Northolt, whose owner I sat next to giving evidence to Gwynnith Dunwoody's Select Committee in its inquiry into London's airport capacity, which coincided with the 2003 White Paper.
But how about a 2000m runway (plus full RESA etc) parallel to LGW, about 7,500m to the North? It could have been up and running by now. For all I know it's still in contention. It would have been totally privately financed, have a fast rail link to London (linked with Crossrail), direct access to M23, and 8-minute transit to LGW for connecting traffic.
Its capacity, allowing for some noise restriction, would be at least 125,000 ATM/year.
It was defeated, of course, by the usual British mix of resistance to a new idea, dishonesty on the part of public officials and politicians pursuing a different agenda than the pubic good, undue influence of very wealthy individuals, and commercial self-interest at the expense of everything else.
I mentioned it in a previous post, so I won't bore you again with the name. But wouldn't it have been nice to have it up and running today?
Last edited by old,not bold; 13th Dec 2015 at 11:15.