London business group calls for Heathrow expansion
01.02.12
The Government should consider all options for increasing capacity at Heathrow Airport, including a third runway and allowing planes to land and take-off simultaneously on its two runways (mixed mode operation), business group London First has said. A report published today by the capital's connectivity commission -- formed by London First -- said all viable options for meeting the UK's long-term need for further airport capacity, including a new airport, should be considered.
Jo Valentine, the chief executive of London First, said: ‘Rather than kicking politically difficult solutions into the long grass, it should consider all options and look at what is best for the UK's prosperity. It could be viewed as negligent of Government to make such an important decision on purely political grounds. A third runway at Heathrow should be ruled back into the options.’
The commission, led by Peter Robinson, who is chairman of law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, said a new hub airport (the suggested Thames Estuary project, or 'Boris Island') was the type of long-term infrastructure planning London needed to remain competitive. But it warned that a new airport would take years to deliver and would be unable to meet the urgent need for new hub capacity that London currently faces.
The report said the absence of spare capacity at Heathrow constrained London's ability to offer a significant range of long-haul routes to growing markets in Asia and Latin America, putting the UK at a competitive disadvantage to Germany, France and Holland.
It recommends that Heathrow should have greater freedom to operate more efficiently by allowing planes to land and take off concurrently on both runways, which could increase runway capacity by up to 15 percent, whilst a longer term plan for a new runway or new airport is implemented. If this option was given the go-ahead, the government should commission advice from the regulator on ways to minimise the distribution of noise from different flight patterns.
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