Heathrow Expansion

[Hopkirk]

Is this dead in the water now?

[bookbinder]

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/heathrow-expansion-now-facing-at-least-two-year-delay-22718

[bookbinder]

It seems to be more a case of suspended animation than actual death.

[jno]

quite possibly sunk in the sewagge ponds. Nobody knows what air travel will be like post-virus, but they already say it's at least two years off. They'll need to rethink, at the very least.

[Hopkirk]

At least it gets Boris out of a hole.

If they don't expand LHR, perhaps BA will have to think about utilising Gatwick.

[jno]

yes, I wouldn't go so far as to say Boris deliberately spread the virus around to save him making a decision (does he still represent a constituency out that way?), but it's helped.

But it's quite possible BA won't need more runways anyway, if the sector is depressed in the long term.

[Hopkirk]

Perhaps some radical thinking could be done, to relieve the pressure in future on Heathrow, without expansion.

You could say that if BA gets any financial help from the government, it should come with strings attached. No moving Gatwick services to Heathrow, and perhaps some services even move to Gatwick.

If airlines generally reduce Heathrow services for a while, them permanently cancel out some slots.

If and when Virgin disappears, cancel some of their slots from the system.

That way the existing airport could cope better, and the environment would benefit.

[jno]

a proper fast train link between LHR and LGW could help, so transit passengers could land in one and fly on from the other, which might save a bit of duplication.

[Canary42]

I actually thought Boris's Thames Estuary Island option was one of his better ideas (unlike the Garden Bridge, the Water Cannon, the bridge to Ireland. . . . .).

I agree the impact on wildlife could be a grave disadvantage, but at least there wouldn't be masses of people suffering under the immediate flight-path (I lived in Staines for 8 years so I know what that's like).

[mushroom25]

// a proper fast train link between LHR and LGW could help //

that won't happen. to make it financially viable, Gatwick flight slots need to be worth a lot more than they currently are. in normal times this would have required a second runway at Gatwick but the extra runway at heathrow was by far the more attractive (and financially viable) option; in today's times, Gatwick slots are practically worthless.

[jno]

no, I know it's not going to happen, mushroom. One of the advantages of LGW, though, is that there seems to be much less local opposition; LHR has been dragging on for years because people like Boris oppose it while people like, er, Boris want it.

Canary, I also liked the idea of Boris Island - sort of what they did in HK. But I gather the problem wasn't just the tawny pipit but the massive transport links that would have had to be conjured up.