London is the world’s greatest city — it deserves an airport to match that status. Although the capital’s premier hub has come a long way since the days of “Heathrow Hell” a decade or so ago it still falls short of passengers’ and business expectation too often.
Much of that is down to capacity constraints as Heathrow Airport is bursting at the seams; the 474,965 plane departures and arrivals it handled last year represented 98.7% of its legal allowable maximum. No wonder so many flights back to London end with a frustrating half an hour circling over the home counties countryside waiting for a landing slot.
Building a third runway will relieve that pressure and provide headroom for passenger growth for the foreseeable future, making Heathrow capable of handling 140 million passengers a year.
It would also create tens of thousands of jobs and provide the best and most visible rejoinder to doom-mongers who say the UK no longer cares about growth and is now in managed decline mode. After the debacle of HS2, Britain is perilously close to deserving its reputation as a country where “nothing gets built anymore”.
Getting Heathrow done, to paraphrase the architects of Brexit, would be a huge vote of confidence in UK plc at a time when it is desperately needed
Unlike the botched high speed railway line, but in common with the superb engineering achievement of the Channel Tunnel, the third runway — and the other expansion work that goes with it — will be entirely privately financed. Not only that but the vast majority of the estimated £20 billion plus cost will be funded by foreign investors. Heathrow, is after all, now only 2% UK owned. Getting Heathrow done, to paraphrase the architects of Brexit, would be a huge vote of confidence in UK plc at a time when it is desperately needed.
This is not in anyway to downplay the huge planning, environmental and regulatory obstacles that will have to be overcome. The losers will include, sadly, the residents of the 750 homes on the fringe of the perimeter fence that will have to be demolished to make way for the tarmac. It is important that they are treated sensitively and fairly with generous compensation. The disruption from what will be six or seven years of construction will no doubt be enormous, not least for drivers on the already congested M4, M3 and M25 motorways. That should not be underestimated. Most importantly of course, expanding Heathrow has huge implications for the quality of the air over London and the noise that its residents have to endure.
The decades of delay may actually prove helpful. Electric powered commercial flights are a real possibility
That is one area where the decades of delay may actually prove helpful. Technology has moved on. Advances in sustainable aviation fuels with far lower harmful emissions than kerosene are advancing rapidly, electric powered commercial flights are no longer a science fiction fantasy. The completion of the Elizabeth Line also means that almost half of Heathrow passengers travel by public transport. There has been huge progress on noise too. Modern aircraft such as Airbus’s A320 neo, and Boeing 787-8 are far quieter than their predecessors.
Pressing ahead with the third runway will provide a signal to the world that the UK is still in the game. It is unlikely to be completed for another decade but, with luck, when it is, London will finally have a gateway to our city that we can all be proud of.
