Heathrow Airport Expansion

The government has today outlined its proposals for the expansion of Heathrow Airport in Werst London. Currently the world’s busiest international airport wth a takeoff and landing about every 45 seconds at peak times, Heathrow has a new fifth terminal opening in 2008 but at the moment only has two runways to handle all these London flights.

The government options are for a new third runway to the north of Heathrow and a sixth terminal which would allow 702,000 takeoffs and landings a year compared to the current 480,000, with 120 million passengers a year by 2020 up from this year’s 67 million. They even square the environmental argument saying that expansion wouldn’t breach EU air quality and noise limits.

How all the travellers are going to get to Heathrow is another question with the government seemingly keen to start charging anyone who drives to the airport on the basis that emissions need to be reduced and the roads can’t handle the traffic, and I doubt the Piccadilly Line could cope with twice the number of people using it. Enviromental groups, the Mayor of London and local residents are all against the plans, so Prime Minister Gordon Brown is going to have a bit of a fight on his hands if he really wants Heathrow to get bigger.

By Chris | Permalink

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