Do you know which international airport serves more world destinations than any other? It isn’t Dubai; it isn’t JFK; and it certainly isn’t London’s tired Heathrow. No, the airport serving the biggest number of global destinations is Amsterdam’s impressive Schiphol Airport – no less than 273 in total! If there ever comes a time when we are able to travel to inhabited planets way beyond our Solar System, I guarantee Schiphol will be the first hub to serve the space aircraft. Not only is the airport incredibly accessible from central Amsterdam, it boasts no less than SIX runways. This enables an unparalleled number of cities to be served without overloading the airport’s capacity. Incredibly, Schiphol only has one terminal building, but that is divided into several departure halls – a design feat that makes the airport easily walkable.
To be fair, it’s not just Schiphol that makes the UK’s only hub airport look something of a national embarrassment. Frankfurt, LAX, Charles de Gaulle, Indira Gandhi International, JFK, Barajas, Haneda, Istanbul, Pudong International and O’Hare all have at least four runways (I believe O’Hare actually has double that number!!). Meanwhile, any glance at a mobile phone’s flight app will reveal a queue of aeroplanes waiting to land at Heathrow. I cannot remember the number of times I’ve flown back to that airport only to be told the plane will spend 45 minutes in a ‘holding position’ (i.e. flying in circles over London because there are too many aircraft waiting to land at any given time. I suppose it’s a useful introduction to a country where hardly anything seems to run smoothly (or at all) these days.
For Europe’s busiest airport serving Europe’s largest city to have only two runways in 2025 is, frankly, pathetic! That’s the same number as Manchester Airport, which has 50 million FEWER passengers!! After spending years doing what the British political classes do best – talking – it has finally been decided that Heathrow will get a third runway. That’s right! After literally decades of suggesting London will slowly fall behind other world cities without extra airport capacity, the proposal has now been put forward which will give Heathrow what will still amount to fewer runways than many of the world’s other major aviation hubs! It will involves a parallel runway to be constructed to the north of the existing airport, with a tunnel for the M25 motorway (so you’ll then be able to sit in an endless traffic jam in the dark). Hallelujah!
But wait! Not only will this decision face a protracted legal process, it is unlikely to be completed before 2040. Fifteen years to construct a runway and assorted infrastructure! By comparison, the entire Chek Lap Kok International Airport in Hong Kong was completed in nine years, and that also included a complex land reclamation scheme necessary for the new airport to go ahead. The problem in this country is twofold: a deeply ingrained sense of NIMBYism, and large parts of our government completely in thrall to the insanity of Net Zero. Unfortunately for London, that also includes its excessively powerful and egotistical Mayor. This Mayor seems quite content for London to be known as the cornerstone of global diversity with knife crime and stabbings to match, but seems incredibly reluctant to invest in the transport measures essential to keep the capital in the running to maintain its position as one of the world’s foremost cities for airline connectivity and expansion.
Here’s my suggestion: I wouldn’t give Heathrow one extra runway, I’d give it two. Get rid of Sipson, Harlington and Harmondsworth, and repurpose all the land between the existing North Runway and the M4 motorway for Heathrow’s expansion. On top of that, I’d commission an extra two runways for Gatwick to bring the total to three, and add one extra runway at Stansted. Looking ahead 50, 60, 70 years this is the only way Britain’s capital city will keep pace with global air traffic growth as well as making the most of the opportunities it brings. Because, whatever the Net Zero apostolic lunatics may crow, air travel is one phenomenon of the 20th Century that isn’t going to be put back in its box. You only have to watch the fascinating series called ‘Race Across the World’ to see just how difficult it is to travel around the Earth without aeroplanes. And why should millions of people forsake the prospect of seeing the world for business or pleasure in order to satisfy those who would never think of undertaking the same restrictions on their movements? Whatever morons such as Ed Miliband and Sadiq Khan may want, people are never going to go back to the days when a week in Bognor Regis eating candyfloss on a freezing cold pier in the summer rain would suffice. As generations renew, more and more are going to want to travel the planet; open new business opportunities; discover new things, etc. With air travel the ONLY way to make such desires a reality, it is important the commercial and/or capital city of any aspiring country takes the necessary measures to reap the financial rewards inherent in such evolution. Otherwise, folk will be looking at the world a few generations from now and will wonder why London – a city that once had the busiest airspace and one that is situated on the most central time longitude of them all – has been relegated to a second or third division.
I can think of no other country where there are such barriers to major infrastructural development as this one. At one time, opponents of major roads and other transport projects were confined to the fringes of public debate and subjected to ridicule. Who recalls ‘Swampy’, the Lefties’ favourite environmental pugilist, who delighted in digging disruptive networks of tunnels near any new road or rail development that came along? Today, people with such mind sets are in the upper echelons of power. Unless or until we get a leader like Donald Trump, who is prepared to forsake the more extreme demands of environmental protection to encourage growth, we’re going to fall further behind. Heathrow has already been overtaken by Dubai as the world’s busiest airport for international passengers. How many more are destined to leapfrog it?
Views: 74
