Ahhhh! So it was really all about competing busines models rather than runway capacity?!!
i must have missed that memo...
Er.... yeah you did.
The question was around runway capacity and where to build it.
The answer was LHR and the reason a much greater ROI building on existing hub capacity without splitting between LHR/LGW. That was why LHR was recommended, the LGW ROI was way lower. The two business models are not the same, the LHR one got the nod as the commission did not see how LGW could ever become a competitive or complimentary hub (!)
But Heathrow cannot come close to matching Gatwick's cost of project-delivery. Both sides of the ledger must be carefully considered.
And GIP pitched a lower than credible bid let's be honest, the gatwickobviously figures are a joke. The current Gatwick rail links are on their knees
*today*
There is no logical reason for MAN to be central to this discussion.
Tell bagso next time he bangs his daily anti LHR post on the MAN thread then
Finally, Skip / All ... May I suggest that it may be appreciated by readers of this SE airports capacity discussion if you stop pitching questions about Manchester Airport on this Heathrow thread. They don't belong here, and it is you, not those you refer to as the "Manchester Crowd" who is constantly manoeuvring to conflate the topics.
It's the central core of your argument Shed, you're the only one who can't see it, honestly. Continue to artificially constrain LHR to allow MAN and the regions to prosper.
To do so at the cost proposed is to send a message to the world that we've lost our marbles and our politicians can't cope with primary-school arithmetic.
Cost calculations at this level are not arithmetic. The likes of multi decade amoritisation of debt is hardly primary school stuff and both sides are bang on throwing around half baked stats. The stuff coming out of GIP shoes their afraid of making only a reasonable mutiple of their capital invetsment instead of a huge markup they'd get if LGW grows at the expense of LHR. Ironically both used to be public enterprises.
Oh and enjoy the sandwich, just avoid the £2000 one....