Heathrow’s expansion bid, pitting it against rivals Gatwick, has received backing from familiar quarters. The bosses of five regional airports have penned an endorsement to the Airports commission in favour of Heathrow having a third runway. The chiefs at Bradford, Liverpool, Newcastle, Aberdeen and Glasgow airports have hailed expansion at Heathrow as the correct choice for the whole country.
They claim choice for passengers who live outside of London has been curtailed by the few slots at Heathrow. Heathrow is one of the airports in the world which boasts of more than 50 long haul routes. Due to lack of slots at the airport domestic airlines cannot take passengers to Heathrow for connecting flights. This is not only affecting the airlines, but also the passengers. Expansion at Heathrow would create 200,000 more slots which would be sufficient for domestic airlines to operate there. This would have a positive ripple effect on regional airports the bosses say as a result of more airlines operating from satellite airports to Heathrow.
The airport commission is currently holding public hearings on the expansion proposals where Mr Gorman has moved to reassure residents around Wandsworth and other areas around Heathrow of lesser noise pollution if the airport is given the chance to build a third runway. Heathrow says for London to maintain its status as a global hub, it needs to have Heathrow expanded to have higher number of slots for both domestic and long-haul flights. This will increase connectivity within the UK and also with the world.
The commission had earlier released an assessment of the suitability of the two proposals which showed that although at a higher price and expense, expansion at Heathrow would bring more economic benefits as compared to expansion at Gatwick.