Rumours circulating Westminster that Transport Sec will announce PM has passed Heathrow decision to new leader.
Ah, was wondering what that racket was, now it's clear: the noise of cans being kicked down the road, again (yawn).
They both need new runways
Indeed both do need new rwys.
Neither airport would contemplate building a new runway if they knew the competition was also doing so, for obvious reasons.
Though that's academic, as it's the one scenario that Davies specifically ruled out.
Not quite, LHR could go ahead knowing that there will be payback, they have some 40 carriers waiting for slots. A new rwy means slots for all - incumbents as well as newcomers. For LGW it is not as clear cut.
If both airports were allowed to build rwys, and amongst leadership candidates only Andrea Ledsom has suggested this, it's likely that LHR would start building immediately.
LGW would have to cope with the potential emptying of the "waiting room", with U2 starting an operation at LHR possibly at the cost of LGW expansion, and the possibility of BA and VS concentrating most (BA) or all (VS) of their operations at LHR.
DR,
It's not academic. Davies no more has the power to 'rule anything out' than you or I.
Govt can ignore him completely if they decide to.
Looks like they already have, there's no rwy construction activity in my neck of the woods!
Cameron should clear LHR R3 as a parting gift. Would be a good legacy.
Exactly. Since the government appear to be having such a problem in making a decision, it is surprising that they did not slip an announcement out during the referendum campaign when attention was diverted.
I don't think it is obvious:
Both airports now operating at or near capacity?
Look at what happens operationally to either if anything (even relatively minor, like strong winds dictating greater separation) affects the arr/dep rate?
Or in the case of LHR,
over capacity.
All of those comments are perfectly correct.
But think about it. An additional runway, at either airport, only makes business sense if a decent ROI can be achieved, in other words if you can utilise it adequately by attracting sufficient new traffic. That's a lot easier to do if the other guy is still capacity-constrained.
If both airports were foolish enough to go ahead simultaneously with a new runway, they would be slugging it out for many years to come in competition with each other and both would struggle to get an adequate return on investment.
Both Gatwick and Heathrow CEOs have said as much in the past. You could argue that that's just posturing, but they aren't stupid.
Yes, that is why, in the event of both getting the go-ahead, LHR could start building immediately, while LGW may be hesitant (see above).