The Future of UK aviation in the hands of Politicians

 

British Government Aviation Minister, Theresa Villiers, has re-iterated the government stance of a third runway at Heathrow stating it would have a "massive" impact on nearby resident's quality of life with the increase effect of over 220,000 more over London per year. 

Instead, "another solution" to south east England airport capacity was needed, Mrs Villiers said at a transport conference in London in April 2012. She acknowledge that Heathrow was near capacity as is and Gatwick fast approaching this.

However, this goes against evidence produced by Colin Matthews, CEO of BAA which owns Heathrow airport who argues that foreign airlines are moving away from the idea of the airport due to aircraft capacity constraints. This would have the effect of the UK losing out to rival European airports if Heathrow is not expanded. 

The Board of Airline Representatives in the UK (BAR UK) which produced the poll shows that 53% of scheduled airlines have either decided to, or are preparing to, base flights in other countries than the UK because of Heathrow's lack of capacity and 86% of airlines said they would put on more flights to the UK if additional take-off and landing slots were available at Heathrow.

The message is clear - no capacity at Heathrow then the airlines will move out of Britain - thus handing any economic growth to European competitors. Needless to say there would be no travel retail, duty free growth either which is critical revenue for the airport owners.