Heathrow Fights Back in London Airport Wars [Part II]

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Following London Mayor Boris Johnson’s press conference on Monday that called for the closure of Heathrow Airport, executives for the busiest airport in the world have fought back today with their proposal to expand the airport that runs at nearly 99 percent capacity.

Heathrow Fights Back in London Airport Wars [Part II]

Though the mayor himself did not dub his choice for an artificial island on the Thames River that would offer four runways to Heathrow’s existing two, it was pretty clear that that was how he would prefer London move forward to expand and continue functioning as the major European airport. While nearly 100,000 people are affected by noise generated by the London giant, executivess from Heathrow believe that they can expand the airport by a runway (or two) and still lower noise pollution and complaints.

Given the amount of time that Heathrow has been in operation, it’s tough to take “neighbors” complaints without a grain of salt. Did they not hear the planes when they looked at their potential purchase, did they not know of the airport’s existence?

Heathrow Unveils Their Rebuttal to the Mayor

Today Heathrow executives unveiled their rebuttal to the mayor and the Davies Commission, which will ultimately take their findings to Parliament after the General Election.

Three schemes (schematics) for a third runway would increase the maximum flights from 480,000 to up to 740,000 a year. Heathrow bosses say this would maintain Heathrow as a “Premier League” airport and “win the race” to be Europe’s leading aviation hub.

A fourth runway would push the number of flights towards a million, according to analysis of figures in Heathrow’s “A New Approach” masterplan.

But the proposals, which include a Terminal 6, sparked an immediate backlash from residents’ groups, with warnings of a new High Court battle to derail them.

Third Runway Option To The  Southwest

As reported by a number of English newspapers last month, one of Heathrow’s preferred third runway options is to the southwest of the existing airport in the Stanwell Moor area.

Costing £18 billion, it would be partly built on reservoirs and need a section of the M25 to be tunneled.

The other favored development is to the northwest, while the third possibility is to the north. Heathrow’s chief executive Colin Matthews said: “After half a century of vigorous debate but little action, it is clear the UK desperately needs a single hub airport with the capacity to provide the links to emerging economies which can boost UK jobs, GDP and trade.”

“Today we are showing how that vision can be achieved whilst keeping the impact on local residents to an absolute minimum.”

Some areas, including Richmond, Putney and Windsor will experience less aircraft noise, under all of Heathrow’s third runway plans, though others would suffer more including to the south of West Drayton and an area west of Staines.

“Today we are showing how that vision can be achieved whilst keeping the impact on local residents to an absolute minimum.”

See Part One HERE

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