Three Options Presented To The Airports Commission

Officials at Heathrow Airport have submitted three options for a third runway to the U.K. Airports Commission they say will increase capacity and reduce noise at the London airport. The proposals would cost between $21 and $27 billion, which airport representatives say is less than any competing proposal for a new hub airport outside the city.

In a news release, Heathrow said All three options are quicker and cheaper than any rival hub option, delivering extra capacity by 2025-2029, and that all three put millions more people within easy reach of the UK’s hub airport than non-Heathrow options and all three protect the thriving businesses and plentiful jobs that surround Heathrow.

Airport officials say each option has its particular benefits, but Heathrow believes the two westerly options offer clear advantages. They deliver a full-length third runway while minimizing the impact on the local community from noise and compulsory house purchases.

“After half a century of vigorous debate but little action, it is clear the UK desperately needs a single hub airport with the capacity to provide the links to emerging economies which can boost UK jobs, GDP and trade,” said Colin Matthews, Heathrow’s chief executive. “It is clear that the best solution for taxpayers, passengers and business is to build on the strength we already have at Heathrow. Today we are showing how that vision can be achieved whilst keeping the impact on local residents to an absolute minimum.”

The two westerly options are radically different from the short third runway proposed by BAA in the last decade. Airport management said each option would raise the capacity at Heathrow to 740,000 flights a year (from the current limit of 480,000). That would allow the UK to compete with international rivals and provide capacity at the UK’s hub airport for the foreseeable future.

The Mayor of London, meanwhile, has set forth three proposals of his own, and none of them involve Heathrow. Mayor Boris Johnson said in a news release that his analysis shows that only a four runway hub airport would allow London to reach the emerging markets of the world. It would potentially quadruple the number of destinations London serves in China and South America, destinations which can currently only be reached from the UK by travelling through rival hubs in Europe, and add another fifty per cent more destinations in the United States.

Johnson said a single hub airport would also restore domestic routes to nine cities across the UK, many of which are currently only served by Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, which already increasingly boasts of being the UK’s leading hub airport. Restoring those routes would allow the UK’s entrepreneurs and manufacturers to trade with the rest of the world regardless of where they were based. He said there are three optimal locations for a new airport: on the Isle of Grain in north Kent; at Stansted; or on an artificial island in the middle of the Thames estuary.

“Heathrow can never solve our problems and our studies show that we’re better off with a new site," said Daniel Moylan, the Mayor of London’s chief adviser on aviation. The immense noise, pollution and congestion that would result from expanding an airport located in the heart of our suburbs would potentially devastate the greatest city in the world. Whereas the three potential sites for a new hub airport portray a compelling vision for the infrastructure, the economy and the international competitiveness that London and the wider UK could benefit from if we take the clear opportunities that are in front of us. A new airport would be accompanied by world-class public transport connectivity, it would have the resilience to withstand the worst the UK’s weather has to offer; and it would have the capacity to save you from being stranded in a never ending spiral of aircraft over the suburbs."

(Image provided by Heathrow Airport.)

FMI: http://www.heathrowairport.com, www.london.gov.uk/mayor-assembly/mayor