[Bucksnet]

VK, Heathrow is the right site if done properly.

Any proposal for a new airport in the Thames Estuary is a non-starter, won’t attract any serious private capital, only benefits a small number of people while disadvantaging many more, and there is no demand from the east.

Give up on this pipe dream!

[VintageKrug]

Rubbish and more rubbish!! 😉

[LeTigre]

How about making Heathrow like an aircraft carrier by slinging planes out and catching them when they come in! Shortens take-off and landing to less than 10 seconds a pop! Just use giant elastic bands…

Other Options:
Double Decker runway
Completely silent planes (Hydrogen powered of-course)
Inflight passenger transfer and refuelling, like RAF
Underground terminals to allow more aircraft stands and perhaps a small runway for narrow-bodies or jets
Only permit aircraft with 300 or more seats
Large helicopters for short-haul flights
Allow night-flights in westerly direction over less populated areas, with quicker ascent or descent to ensure any circling is done minimum 5000 feet above houses to reduce noise
Create high-speed link to St Pancras HS1 within 5 years to allow transfer passengers to regional and continental destinations, including sleeper trains and allow BA/VA/BMI to operate own trains to make money and run less planes
Give grants to airlines to buy bigger replacement planes
Allow BA to buy only A380s

Any thoughts welcome!

[Tete_de_cuvee]

T2 (aka The Toast Rack) has just been topped out – declared Watertight. The £2.3 rebuild is on schedule for opening in 2014.

T1 will then be demolished allowing for T2 to be extended futher – this phase is scheduled for completion in 2019 though could be cancelled if “Boris Island” or similar is approved.

BAAs plan for upto 2030 sees T3 being demolished with T2 expanding and T5 going from 2 to 4 satellite buildings.

[BeckyBoop]

BAA says Heathrow passenger numbers reach record

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17123884

xx

[transtraxman]

It is amazing that the demand for slots at Heathrow never ceases despite government prohibitions. The increase to 99.2% occupancy of the slots means that LHR is on a knife edge, prone to any minor glitch, to be suffered by all the passengers.

The passenger numbers at all the airports (with the exception of Stansted) are up, belying the soothsayers predictions of down turns in economic activity. 69.4 million passengers at LHR despite its problems is an impressive number. Check this data out from the CAA.

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/80/airport_data/201112/Table_01_Size_of_UK_Airports.pdf

All we now need is for the Tory government to recognise the market forces at play and to stop interfering. Let the third runway be built as soon as possible!!!! And they should start digging the second runway at Gatwick in 2019 as soon as the present legal limitation runs out – it will be needed as well.

[VintageKrug]

I think you’ll find that Labour also opposes at Third Runway, so it’s not solely a political issue.

If it was easy to do, would provide the capacity needed and delivered a strategic solution, it would have been pushed through.

As it is, a Third Runway achieves none of these things and indeed there’s plenty of practical things that can be done to release capacity at LHR, in particular the continuation of Mixed Mode, larger aircraft per slot (and the stands to handle them) and easing night flying restrictions for the new generation of quiet jets as well as reducing private aviation and non-passenger flights.

The local Council (NOT government) opposition to a second runway at Gatwick should be overridden, though there’s already been significant apron capacity increase at Gatwick which hasn’t really been reported on, in preparation for such a move; I’d be very surprised if a new terminal wasn’t on the cards very soon.

As transtraxman rightly says, we should remember that current demand is against the background of unprecedented economic contraction. The minute the economy picks up, so will demand and that will have a marked impact on LHR. At least by that time, the new T2 development and associated gates, will be in place.

BAA (and BA to a lesser extent, as it’s more mobile) will do everything in its power, including delaying vital terminal construction, if it believes the government will support a new Airport for London, eliminating its monopoly.

We have to think 50-100 years hence, not the short termist perspective of the next decade.

[BeckyBoop]

Vintage Krug LHR really needs a 2 extra runways to ease current congestion and for safety not expansion xx

[VintageKrug]

Splendid – I’ll pop out with my bucket and spade and make a start this afternoon.

See you later – can you bring my Bob the Builder dumper truck from home. xx

[BeckyBoop]

Why are you acting like a twat with me?

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Becky

Don’t take it personally, he loves to antagonise.

Just reassure yourself that he doesn’t understand what mixed mode is, so he is already driving the equivalent of a Bob the Builder dumper truck 🙂

I look forward to the advent of moderation here.

[BeckyBoop]

Vintage Krug the question still stands..

why are you being like a twat towards me? what have i ever done to you thats made me to be treated in the way you do to me?

ps. can everyone else please not comment here until he answers my questions, thank you.

[Henkel.Trocken]

This will be great fun, VK and BB fighting with themself.

[LeTigre]

As Miranda would say… such fun!

[famouschicken]

To link this with the current discussion about a proposed new BT forum; I think that this exchange show the need for a direct messaging capability, so that any personal spats can be held in private and leave the forum for the intended purpose. (Although to be fair Becky you did ask in a previous thread if VK was your Dad, maybe he is now treating you in such a manner?) Rgds.

[Author]

Posts