| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Third Runway | |
| Posted by: | Paul Green | |
| Date/Time: | 28/03/12 11:24:00 |
| Agreed John, but gridlocking west London is not good for business either. THere are indeed lots of holiday flights from LHR, moving these would free enormous spare capacity. GLA recent report believes that LHR can reach 90m paxs without R3. How big does it need to be??? And the argument that LHR needs to compete as a hub. It is a hub, and is the largest intl airport in the world. Does it matter if it becomes no 2 or 3 in a few years? No, of course not. Noone argues we must expand Kings Cross because the Gare du nord is bigger. Basic economics says you need transports links that are "sufficent", not the best. Otherwise Amsterdam and Frankfurt would long ago have overtaken London as global cities, and the fact is they continue to trail well behind. I would add we have a net tourist deficit of over £10bn pa, ie we spend far more money abroad than foreign tourists spend here, this is not changing and indeed making foreign flights easier likely to expand this deficit. All the economic arguments are flimsy in the extreme. |