As the debate over the need to expand Heathrow Airport drags on, Gatwick Airport has resurrected proposals for a second runway and its Chief Executive, Stewart Wingate, has blasted Heathrow for giving foreign airlines a false impression that London was ‘closed for business’. Media had seized on the decision not to build a third runway as evidence of London being prepared to cede ground to competitor cities like Paris, in terms of its air handling capacity.
Chancellor George Osborne, meanwhile, has been championing plans to increase drastically the number of flights at Heathrow, without building a third runway, the main bone of contention between lobbyists.
Travel industry sources claim ‘mixed mode’ proposals could see more than 1,000 extra flights a week and as many as 20m more passengers each year.
If landing rules due to come in next month are extended, Heathrow’s capacity problems could be solved without the need for a new runway. So-called mixed mode flying, under which runways are used for take-offs and landings at the same time, could allow 120,000 extra aircraft movements each year and unlock up to 25 per cent more slots.
In a related development, the Aviation Foundation, an organisation founded by BAA, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Manchester Airports Group, today (25 June) is due to set out a series of tests against which it believes Government aviation policy should be measured.
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