Boris plans Heathrow replacement

Scuzi said:
Hence why in the short term (<20 years) it would make sense to keep Heathrow operational.

True.
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Scuzi you mope, I'm for the change not against it :p

But it still stands, running both airports and very low capacity will massively increase ALL costs involved in flights, they will even use less fuel all told and so buy in lower bulk and increase those prices. This will be passed on, running two airports instead of one will increase taxes, and in the end, flight prices. You're forgetting that London already has several other airports, small, maybe, but theres not "that" much around london, you don't fly to London then up to Manchester, well obviously you can, but lots won't. In New York, remember its 3 main airports, really only one flys international destinations, the others are for short haul mostly and those three airports serve lots and lots of short haul travel and lots of daily travel for business people hitting wall street. Due to the size and nature of the states business travel for short journeys is much more frequent.

London simply couldn't support 2 "Heathrows" , it needs one Heathrow sized international, and a few short haul cheapo places, thats just the way it works. Remember if you keep the Runways and Heathrow running at limited capacity it would be hard to make a profit, considering the size and staffing needed for the place while its barely being used, and then, you can't redevelope and sell the land off if planes are still coming in. Ditch the airport and you've got land space that could sell for multiple billions. You could build other things that will create jobs, aswell as no doubt, office space, or housing.
 
I think its a great idea. As Scuzi mentioned though, the time scale is far from realistic.

I just wonder how long Heathrow can go on with only 2 runways, I really hope they don't get the third.
 
platypus said:
I think its a great idea. As Scuzi mentioned though, the time scale is far from realistic.

I just wonder how long Heathrow can go on with only 2 runways, I really hope they don't get the third.
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Its so stupid to keep piling money into Heathrow when there are better alternatives that at the end of the day, will be required anyway at some point in the future. Build a spanking new, massive, almost perfectly designed airport now for say £20billion. OR pump another 5-10billion into Heathrow, probably more over the next 10 years, then do the same thing and build a new airport, however obviously, it will increase in cost all the time. Build the same airport in 10 or 20 years and it will cost 40billion instead and increased traffic at Heathrow will make the transition far more complicated.

Its like when Thatcher turned down the chance to fibre-optic up the whole nation decades ago for the grand sum of 6billion or something in a time that would have honestly effected very very very few people. Now it would cause horrific complications for millions of people, thousands of businesses and so on, and also cost the tax payer some 30-50billion I think it was last guestimated at. Spending big now, will save a heck of a lot of cash in the future and it WILL happen anyway.
 
englishpremier said:
i'm interested to know - how does a runway cost £10billion itsn't it just some tarmac?
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Well I wasn't specifically refering to the runway itself, though you'll find its a lot more than just tarmac. It needs a high quality drainage system, which needs connecting to everything else, lights and lights and lights for the runway with backup power supplies to power them in emergencies. They need more emergency services to maintain a presence on scene incase of a accident, they most likely will need to find the space, knock down buildings, move people and businesses, buy land, pay for certain other things to get building permissions and so on, the costs add up as you realise lots of things around the area get effected and have to be dealt with.

But I was more talking about, upkeep in general, improvements around the airport, the terminals, security, roads surrounding Heathrow to keep things moving nicely, the upkeep and improving of the tube/travel services out to Heathrow, over the years lots and lots of money is spent on fixing/improving things and at the end of the day, if you're always going to at some point have to move the airport, you can take Thatchers woefully short sighted stance of "let the next generation deal with it" (at MASSIVELY increased) costs, or we can cut the losses and get started on a new place now.
 
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