[Andrew66]

And why would Carolyn McCall not be keen on Gatwick expanding and yet supporting the expansion at Heathrow which they do not fly from ??
The Heathrow expansion will cost more and costs will be passed onto passengers eventually , of course BA doesn’t want more competition at LHR , but neither does EZY at LGW , so both airports should be allowed to expand and come up with competitive packages to attract airlines which in turn will benefit the passenger , isn’t that the whole reason that BAA was split up ! To increase competition between the airports .

[Flightlevel]

Gatwick already has half the capacity of Heathrow with only one runway, its the busiest single runway airport in the world, so its equally busy. It needs better public transport (i.e. Zone7 on a Travelcard, & frequency). It can build a new runway at less expense to the taxpayer & while we’ve bailed out the banks can we afford to bail out HAL? The worst environmental conditions at LHR are already well known, especially to locals!

[transtraxman]

The traffic figures for London´s Heathrow and Gatwick airports have been published today. They show the same upwards tendency as reported for the June and July figures.

Heathrow recorded 7.33 million passengers for August which makes for a rolling twelve month figure of 74.44 million (1.8% increase).

http://mediacentre.heathrow.com/pressrelease/details/81/Corporate-operational-24/4969

In the figures for Gatwick in August, 4.53 million passed through the terminals while the rolling twelve month figure is 39.49 million (a 5.9% increase).

http://mediacentre.gatwickairport.com/press-releases/2015/15-09-10-august-marks-gatwicks-busiest-month-in-its-history.aspx

Add these figures to the previous ones mentioned by me on this thread @transtraxman – 11/08/2015 09:27 BST and the argument for expansion at both airports becomes unrefutable.

Gatwick´s, CEO Stewart Wingate, lays great emphasis on the Aiport Commission´s estimated traffic for Gatwick reaching 40 million by 2024 while it is already at 39.5 million.
It just goes to show that the “so-called” experts consistently underestimate the traffic forecasts for London´s airports. There can be no better argument to get ahead of the game to provide the capacity already needed. Let both airports be expanded now!

[Alex]

Seems to me that all three airports need extra runways not least for safety reasons. After all, a mile of runway is a very much cheaper than a new motorway or high speed rail link. There also seems to be plenty of room on the West side of Heathrow – may have to build over the M25 but that needs extra capacity at that point too.
Seems to me that the main problem actually is how to handle the people, car parking, security and baggage. I came through Stanstead yesterday (Wed 10th Sept) and all the escalators were switched off because the volume of people meant people could not get off the top. It was horrendous and an airport I will avoid in future – I will just pay the extra cost of flights from Heathrow – or better still Bristol, Manchester or Birmingham.
Surely someone could think of a better way of moving people from their train, bus or car to their plane? After all the whole thing grew up initially because only the very rich flew – and they never carried their own bags always having porters even at railway stations.
I have also never understood why the economics of operating an airport means that regional airports cannot compete – places like Exeter, and Cardiff for example. The hassle of having to travel to London to get the best price seems illogical to me.

[PeterCoultas]

AlexW: +1 about need for extra runways
Also agree with your comment re regional airports: that is why KLM do so well – why trog to (and from) LHR for their unpleasant security unless this will give you a direct flight?

[ViajeroUK]

AlexW, agree your comments about the hassle of travelling to/passing through LHR or any other London airport.
Ex London prices are not always the best anyway. If you factor in travelling time/cost, plus maybe an overnight hotel for an early flight they can be much dearer than using your friendly local airport.

[openfly]

Gatwick management are being totally blind to the fact that the M23/M25 will not cope with the doubling in size of their airport. Who is going to pay for the necessary relief motorway, the M35, linking to the South of Crawley round to the M4 at Reading?
The infrastructure regarding public transport at Gatwick is severely limiting, few train destinations and a few coach destinations. Most passengers relying on motor transport and the already clogged M25.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Gatwick is far more accessible by public transport than Heathrow. Sure road links would need improving but that goes for any airport expansion. But in terms of public transport Gatwick has much better infrastructure than Heathrow. You can only go to 6 places by Heathrow on a train compared to 150+ from Gatwick – which will increase in 2018 with Thameslink upgrade.

Also far more people access LGW by Public Transport than LHR by a significant amount in % terms of those using the airport – so it is Heathrow at the moment which is very weak in this area.

[ConstantFlyer]

Instead of funneling passengers from the English regions through overcrowded London to already overstretched airports, perhaps we should be suggesting to Londoners that they travel to England’s pleasant and undercrowded regional airports to fly abroad.

[Bath_VIP]

ConstantFlyer,

I agree. Both Birmingham and Southampton are just over an hour away by train and an upgrade could bring this under an hour. For those living in the suburbs, the journey time would be even less.

I repeat my earlier post in this thread; stop and think how many runways London has within an hour of central London. The answer is a very high number, more than adequate for London’s needs. The issue is that they are scattered all over London. For point to point travel that is benefit as it allows passengers to choose the most convenient runway. For transfer passengers, it is an issue but only if all airlines insist being in the same place. I am still not convinced that it is necessary to do this.

[Edski777]

To add insult to this open sore: AMS Schiphol has announced today that they, in close cooperation with the airlines, are looking into moving forward the extension of the terminal with another pier.
In stead of 2022 this extra pier should be ready in 2019 at the latest.

They must be laughing their brains out about the sitcom called “Add another runway to an airport in Britain”. While totally incompetent politicians, study groups, consultants and other highly overpaid folks keep coming up with one ludicrous plan over another silly decision the competition is happily chopping away at the British air travel industry.

Plenty of sensible solutions have been discussed, along with the one or two not so sensible, on this forum. Monty Python came up with the minitry of silly walks. It seems they progressed to the ministry of transportation focussing on the demise of air transport and airports.

Monty Python gave up: they can never top this in absurdity.

[openfly]

One can only assume that TimFitzgerald is on the board of GIP, owners of LGW.
The local MPs around the Gatwick area are already anticipating the deluge of protests at the prospect of the construction of the M35 which will be necessary if the 2nd runway is built at Gatwick. The M23/M25 just will not cope with a doubling of passenger traffic at the airport. Most of us already spend hours a week queuing on a four lane motorway.
Yes there might be a possible 150 destinations direct by train….Horley, Salfords, Earlswood, Three Bridges, Balcombe etc….

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

The only board I get involved with is a cheeseboard!

From Heathrow only major destination direct is Paddington, whereas many more major towns direct from Gatwick. Perhaps planning of airport growth really needs to be based around massive improvement at either location of public transport, not car users which undermines efficiency of the local area of either option. It is on that basis that Gatwick already does much better than LHR with more improvements to come (not to say that LHR won’t see rail improvements soon with Crossrail and new spur offering connections direct to Reading envisaged). My opinion on airport growth is that both LHR and LGW should have another runway each.

But in the end I trust the politicians to make the right decision on this, I mean that is why we elect them, to make difficult decisions, see the whole picture and not be influenced by NIMBYISM……..

[transtraxman]

I do not trust politicians to make the right decisions, only the ones which most convenience them.

Much of decision making, in my view, depends very much on who has the politicians´ ear. Lobbyists of all colours, unions, employers´ associations, large employers locally, manipulative party members, party barons – when it comes down to it anybody who is well organised and can shout very loud – all seem to influence the soggy press who then go for the highest readership/viewership whatever the consequences.

Any real, balanced, informative reports etc are heavily filtered before they actually reach the general public. How many people actually read reports or are given the chance to? very few in fact. This can be realised by just standing back and listening to the never ending use of the same phrases and weak arguments over the airways and across the written page.

That is why weak decisions taken yesterday have to be corrected today or tomorrow.

A transport infractructure policy has to be a whole, not itsy bitsy patchwork fixes. What is needed is a rolling programme to anticipate, develop and provide solutions which are then put into effect.
Is that possible from our politicians?

[CathayLoyalist2]

Transtraxman, unfortunately but not surprisingly ‘no’.

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