Take-off for Heathrow's third runway?

At last, the UK Government has bitten the bullet and committed to further expansion at Heathrow. With a completion date in 2020, however, the project faces many more hurdles ahead, warns editor Richard Scrase. 

Today (Thursday 15 January), the UK government finally approved plans to build a third runway and a sixth terminal at Heathrow Airport.

The decision has been a long-time coming and the project will undoubtedly face further hurdles in the form of legal challenges before it is due to be completed by 2020.

Land grab

Only yesterday, a group of environmental protestors revealed that they have bought an acre of land in Sipson, the village that is due to be bulldozed to make way for the development.

The project also faces political resistance, both from the Conservative opposition party and from Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London.

Most political commentators predict that the Conservatives will regain power at the next General Election, which must take place by spring 2010, and they have committed to halting the project if they are elected.

While there is undeniably a huge wave of publicity against the plan, with many celebrities and minor politicians revelling in the media coverage, it is difficult to see how the Government could have come to any other decision.

Threats and promises

I also suspect I am not alone in believing that any incoming Conservative Government would need to think long and hard before fulfilling its threat to halt the project.

In the light of all the criticism, it is useful to reflect on the reasons why UK Transport Secretary, Geoff Hoon, backed the £9 billion (US$13 billion) airport expansion plan.

International Air Transport Association boss, Giovanni Bisignani, says that if Heathrow isn’t allowed to grow, the airport’s passenger traffic will be swallowed up by competing airports in Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

“These airports are all operating at 75% capacity. They would welcome, and would be able to accommodate the extra business that Heathrow would turn away if it couldn’t expand,” he says.

Better connected

A third runway and a sixth terminal will also enable Heathrow to receive more connecting flights and an increased number of transit passengers, who are the lifeblood of the airport. IATA says that two thirds of flights from Heathrow depend on transit passengers to fill a quarter of their seats.

Bisignani also claims that arguments put forward by environmental campaigners against expanding Heathrow, don’t hold weight. “Climate change,” he says, “is a global issue and aviation contributes 2% of global CO2 emissions.”

Time and money

What worries me more than all the environmental and political posturing is why it takes so long and costs so much for such projects to be completed in this part of the world.

Remember, the world’s largest terminal building (Terminal 3) was completed on time at Beijing Capital International Airport last year after three years construction at a cost of only US$3 billion.

How is it then that Heathrow’s new runway and terminal will cost at least four times as much and take three times as long to complete?


 

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