Originally Posted by
Shed-on-a-Pole
Nice soundbite. Please state your evidence!
You're talking about traffic volume based on current distribution of services. I was referencing actual APD charges per passenger which follow a set-scale according to route length and class of travel regardless of departure airport. Thus a passenger flying from LHR or LGW to Prague in economy can expect to pay the same amount in APD. Likewise a passenger in business flying from LHR or LGW to HKG.
Note for clarification that Scotland plans to move away from this system and that there is a special exemption for BFS-EWR (I believe). The APD system is under review and may change at some point in the future anyway.
But the scale of APD charges levied per passenger at each of them is.
You disagree with this specific commentator. I disagree with certain others. With so many different views being expressed these matters are subjective. We must make our own judgments.
Hence my call for strict cost oversight to be applied with respect to their proposals.
Ahh. So your expert is now just a 'commentator'. That perhaps puts his 'expert opinion' into a more realistic context.
It's funny that you seem happy to take the figures provided in respect of Gatwick (£9.3billion, let's not forget) at face value but the c.£12bn figure provided by Heathrow with utter contempt. Gatwick expansion is almost 75% of the cost of the Heathrow proposals (discounting TfL's extortionate shopping list). One can be progressed with 'appropriate financial oversight' yet the other risks financial oblivion, it seems.
Scotland's plans for APD are irrelevant here. As really are suggestions that businesses and first class pax pay the same level of APD ex Gatwick and Heathrow. As has been demonstrated over a prolonged period of time, Gatwick has an absolute inability to support premium traffic compared to Heathrow. No contest.
Still, if the City of London loses passporting rights post Brexit we are probably all screwed anyway.