Originally Posted by
Vokes55
Because adding an extra strip of tarmac doesn't increase airspace available. Airspace is the biggest issue, Heathrow is surrounded on all sides and there's no room for additional routings in and out of the TMA. Gatwick doesn't have this issue.
Hmmm.
The conclusion reached by the Airports Commission was that a third runway at Heathrow would add roughly 240,000 ATMs per year to capacity.
So, for your assertion to be true ...
Originally Posted by
Vokes55
A new runway at Gatwick could double capacity overnight, an extra 40million per year. A third runway at Heathrow is going to increase capacity by 15-20million max, a third of which won't even enter the country. It's a no brainer.
... that a second runway at Gatwick would provide double the increase in capacity compared to a new Heathrow runway, LGW R2 would have to be capable of handling nearly half a million movements per year (unless you're suggesting that the average number of pax per movement would be much higher at LGW than at LHR).
So the additional capacity provided by a second runway at Gatwick would be as much as that of both of Heathrow's current two runways combined.
Really ???