Airports Commission report

Not unexpectedly the government sponsored Airports Commission last Wednesday (1 July) reported in favour of Heathrow as the site for London’s new runway. 

Of the two possibilities, termed the north west (Heathrow Airport Ltd – HAL) and extended north runway (Heathrow Hub), the HAL scheme was favoured since it gave marginally more movement possibilities (740,000 v 700,000), and offered a less noisy footprint for the local communities, both disputed by “Hub”. 

The national, economic interests dominated the report, with Sir Howard pulling the rabbit out of the bag by offering a night time curfew from 23:00  until 06:00.  Whilst this initially will cause a few scheduling problems, and will upset night freight operators, long term it will be of little consequence.

As with any business it is often the Chief Executive/Chairman who leads, in this case the Prime Minister.  While he clearly does not have the backing of all of his party with the support of the Opposition parliamentary approval is guaranteed.

One way of wriggling out of the dilemma is to say that the extended runway is not a new runway.  No about turn for the PM.

BTN was bombarded with statements from interested parties.  Nothing from BA.

In the interim Northolt seems to be a strong possibility. See in this issue. 
www.gov.uk/government/publications/airports-commission-final-report

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