WHEN Heathrow airport first opened in 1946 it was little more than a muddy airfield. A few thousand passengers waited in freezing-cold marquees. Since then the hub, now the third busiest in the world, has changed dramatically. Each day a small town of 200,000 people travel through its gleaming terminals. But as the airport has grown, so too has opposition towards it expanding further. This means that the recommendation on July 1st by Sir Howard Davies, an economist, to the government to build another runway there will not happen without a fight.
Few doubt that London, Britain’s financial centre, needs more airport capacity. Last year its three main airports (Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted), with four runways between them, handled 130m passengers, 10m more than New York’s main three, which have nine. Heathrow is operating at full capacity, and has been for at least five years. Gatwick, Britain’s second-busiest airport,...Continue reading
via Brian Rushton, Decision time
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