Heathrow new terminal or not.... which side of the fence are you on

[Nosha123]

So a few celebs have pitched in to buy a strip of land to prevent the expansion of HEathrow...

I'm not yet decided which side I am on in all this.. but have these Celebs never ever used a plane to travel on holiday? Seems a bit hypocritical to oppose the airport expansion yet travel off to here and there for your long haul holidays! Is it a case of not on my doorstep'??

Are you on the side of these protestors or not? interested in your views

[Nosha123]

It is on the news!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7825 169.stm

[webbo3]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7825 169.stm



Dave.

[youngmafbog]

Celebreties often pull stunts like this. Proabably got nothing better to do.

I for one am doubtful of the expansion. I think it is poorly thought out and I cant see the infrastrucure around Heathrow being able to support it, it is just too much unless we expand the M25 to 15 lanes maybe.

Surely we should be discouraging flights, the government tax us to fly saying it is bad but now are here aiding and abetting BAA.

Bloody hypocrites

[R1Geezer]

I'm not sure about the rights and wrongs of another runway etc but won't they just slap a compulsory purchase order on it anyway? Like they will with the village etc etc.

[Nosha123]

I think they have consulted land law and complicated this by giving away parcels of the land to different people. Thus the land is owned by lots of people and each person would have to be served with the necessary purchase order...
They may also be able to place convenants on the plot to ensure it is not built on etc...

clever!

[jake-the-peg]

The increased traffic at Heathrow has not come from more people leaving and arrining in the UK but rather from a large increase in people changing flights.

We do not need an expansion at Heathrow to accomodate this country's need but rather to aid Heathrow's profits.

The people living near to Heathrow are being asked to put up with more traffic to make more money for people who don't live anywhere near Heathrow.

So No it's not hypocritical

[rov1200]

If the government are worried out the Heathrow Hub (technically this means its just a transit point between flights to different destinations) why does this have to be cited in the most congestive part of the UK.

Crewe was once the hub of the railways but the Victorians did not need to site it in London.

If people wish to travel to London only then an extra fast train commuter line could be established from an outlying airport.

[Nosha123]

I'm not sure I am travelling at the peak-est of hours on the M25 near H'throw.. but I have rarely had problem on that area of the M.way... Yes it slows you and varies the speeds wioth the cameras.. but I cannot recall ever being stuck stationery there!

The M25 wasnt expanded that long ago - surely it should be able to cope with a bit more additional traffic.. you would have thought they would have considered the possibility of airport expansion at the time they expanded the Mway

[jake-the-peg]

Here's some numbers

In 1992 Transfer Passengers were 9% in 2004 they were 35%

http://www.hacan.org.uk/resources/reports/haca n.transfers_and_transits.pdf

Heathrow's been very clever at hiding this most people seem to have just accepted the idea that we need more capacity for holidays as the question implies

[cassa333]

On the news today they were saying that the new 2008 planning laws may mean they can still do a compulsory purchase order and it wouldn't be too difficult regardless of what they do with the parcles of land they are givingaway or selling.

In this day and age London isn't the only place to build airports. The could make some of the regional airports bigger without the need to expand everything in one place.

Anyway look at the c##ck up they made of terminal 5.....

[Nosha123]

So jake.. are you saying then that there is an increase in airport traffic caused by transfer passengers arriving at heathrow and then departing from another terminal/uk airport???

I'm confused as to how a transfer passenger arriving at heathrow and leaving from heathrow manages to find their way onto the M25 and increases traffic flow

[jake-the-peg]

I went through Terminal 5 in August

15 minutes from door to departure lounge - checked in bags no problem!

Same the other way.

Ropey start but fabulous now!

[jake-the-peg]

I'm saying that Heathrow's expansion over the last 10 years is mostly transfer traffic.

1992 4 million transfers 41 million other
2004 23 Million transfer 44 million other

You do the maths

M25 stuff is a smokescreen

[Panic Button]

This isn't just a new terminal,it's like a new airport, the other side of the A4. There will be no link of taxiways.

If you have not experienced traffic problems in that area Nosha, you are not travelling at peak hours.

The northbound M25 by Heathrow siezes up every day, where six lanes goes down to three.

[Nosha123]

I'm still not understanding why these transfer passengers are in cars or coaches on the M25!!! Where are they going???

If they are going to other Heathrow terminals they would not be on the motorway... If they are landing at Hthrow and leaving from Gatwick then that would explain it more!

[Panic Button]

Transfer passengers provide sufficient demand to make 'thin' routes viable to the airlines.

Without the transfer passengers there would be less destinations served from Heathrow.

Personally, if the transfer passengers went to Paris, Amsterdam or Frankfurt, I couldn't care less.

If they expand the airport it will soon be working at 99% capacity, and as inefficient as ever.

[rov1200]

The staff at Heathrow generate a large amount of traffic where nearly 80% of this is due to car travel.

The journey to and from Heathrow
generates over 100,000 staff movements
per day.

Imagine the scenes at Wembley stadium where the capacity was 100,000. Now replace every individual with a car for comparison.

[jake-the-peg]

And where are these "thin routes" obscure destinations most British people don't want to go to otherwise they wouldn't be thin


They're not all transfer of course - we are talking about almost doubling the number of flights here! so that's where your M25 stuff creeps in.


But the fundamental arguments being put forward are mostly quite dishonest.

This is about expansion of profits being dressed up as some sort of essential infrastructure that the country needs.

With BAA being forced to sell airports to create a competeive market they want this more than ever to keep their stock price high.

If you live nearby - too bad

[tara20]

Unfortunately, most regional airports have no choice but to transfer through London, due to a lack of alternatives. I don't know how high the share of domestic transfers is, but it should be taken into account. Is there a statistic showing the number of domestic transfers compared to international?