Originally Posted by
Bagso
AndrewH52
Hmmmm. .. record stuck ?
Maybe best sit on the naughty chair with Mr Holland-Kaye
A lot has clearly happened since your last intervention, especially Mr Holland-Kaye's mathematical genius or lack of it. Fortunately Willie Walsh has come to the conclusion many of us grasped 18 months ago.
"While you were away...."
Inaccurate comment by Heathrow CEO,
A robust response by Manchester Airport CEO
.... and now "recognition" not only that Heathrow is not just looking for a subsidy from the taxpayer for surrounding infastructure......
BUT wait for it , an additional "Government Gaurantee" ( I think that sounds suspiciously like it might be us again), to cover the cost of a 3rd runway, a prohibitively expensive option, which thank goodness appears close to being replaced, if this article is accurate by "another" prohibitively expensive option.
Let's not mention hair-brained !
"The emerging view of airlines and of the City is that: the third runway is prohibitively expensive; it cannot be phased; that Heathrow airport would struggle to raise the £4.2 billion-£8.4 billion equity component; and in extremis it could require a government guarantee from HM Treasury."
Oh hang on isn't that the conclusion that us "armchair experts" came to as well ?
http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articl...extension-plan
All highly significant for the North of England as was made clear by the Manchester Airport spokesperson.
So let me get this straight. The promoter of a rival scheme questions the costs of the preferred option (which happens not to be theirs) and makes unsupported assertions as to the support or otherwise that may be made by Government. He's backed up by the guy who runs the biggest airline user of Heathrow who has a vested interest in not opening the place up to completion? I'm shocked....
All this against a background of an unelected body (Transport for London) who have had their funding slashed by the Treasury hunting around for some nice private sector-led projects they can mug to pay for a bunch of schemes they want to build but currently can't afford (again I'm shocked).
Part of me wants to cry because of the inability of the wheels of government to knock some heads together and get this done for a sensible price.The other part wants to laugh because at the end of the day it won't be my taxes (or yours for that matter) that contribute towards additional infrastructure at Heathrow. We don't generate enough tax revenue in the north to pay for the services and infrastructure we get now as it is let alone have any 'spare' to put towards projects down south.
And none of this directly impacts on Manchester's ability to attract new long haul services as has been ably demonstrated in recent months.