The Myths
Businesses will move away from London if Heathrow does not expand
Untrue! A recent survey (2006) from the London Chamber of Commerce revealed that 78% of firms were against expansion at Heathrow and less than a sixth of firms would even consider leaving London if the airport did not expand.
Heathrow will go the way of London’s docks if it doesn’t grow
Untrue! London’s docks lost out because of the introduction of new technology. They were not in a position to compete with containerisation which came in at ports such as Felixstowe and Rotterdam. Any comparison with present-day Heathrow, where BAA is not slow to install new technology, is a misreading of history.
London is falling behind the other cities in Europe
Misleading! People do not compare like with like when comparing Heathrow with Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam. A better comparison would be between all London’s airports with all the airports serving the other cities. This gives a very different picture. London’s five airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City) are not only way ahead of their rivals, but over the past decade they have increased that lead over most of their competitors.
All airports contribute to the capital’s economy and business people use all of them. Future Heathrow has never explained why it has shied away from this more accurate comparison.
Business people make most of the trips
Untrue! Business journeys only account for 25% of all air trips using UK airports – a bit higher at Heathrow – and the proportion is expected to stay the same over the next 25 years. The expansion of Heathrow and the other airports is driven by leisure passengers.
There is much more space capacity at Europe’s airports
Only half the story! There is more capacity at some European airports. But it is more complex than the aviation industry would have us believe. It makes great play of the fact that Charles de Gaulle Airport has four runways and Schipol has five (and Frankfurt may be adding a fourth). What it doesn’t say is that all these runways are not in use at the same time. The fifth runway at Schipol was built in order to give residents some break from the noise. Similarly at Charles de Gaulle, runway use is rotated.
There is little opposition to further expansion at other airports in Europe
Untrue! There are lively campaigns at all the main airports, including Charles de Gaulle, Schipol and Frankfurt. Further expansion at these airports is being as fiercely resisted as the proposed expansion at Heathrow. It is also likely that expansion at these airports would cause air pollution limits in the surrounding areas to exceed the EU legal limits (due to come into force in 2010). Just like Heathrow.
People won’t give up flying
Not necessarily! Recent polls show that many people are worried about the amount of flying they do and how it is damaging the planet. For example a 2006 MORI poll found that 60% of people thought that airlines should pay higher taxes to reflect the environmental damage done by aircraft even if means higher air fares. (Ref Ipsos MORI, 2006 Climate Change and Taxing Air Travel, www.ipos-mori.com)
Decoding the jargon
The Government is trying to claim that many people will be better off under their proposals. They are only getting away with this by trying to confuse through the use of technical jargon and by appearing to give cast-iron assurances (which know they can break when it suits them).
Runway Alternation
This is the current practice where planes, when they land over West London, switch runways at 3pm. This gives the people in many parts of West London a half day’s break from the noise. Runway alternation does not apply when planes land from the west over Berkshire because of the Cranford Agreement – see below.
Mixed mode
At present, when the landing planes switch runways at 3pm, so do those taking off. It means that planes land and take off from separate runways. If runway alternation is abolished, planes would be landing and taking off from the same runway (at least for part of the day). That is called mixed mode. This is what the Government wants to introduce.
Cranford Agreement
There was an agreement made in the early 1950s forbidding planes to take off over Cranford because it so close to the easterly end of the northern runway. That means that planes flying over Berkshire must all land on the northern runway and take off from the southern runway. So there can be no switching of runways at 3pm. But, of course, since mixed-mode requires planes to land and take-off from both runways at the same time, the Government would need to get rid of the Cranford Agreement before it could introduce mixed mode.
Westerly Preference
As a rule planes land and take-off into the wind. In the UK, the wind blows from the west about 70% of the time. When the west wind blows, planes land over London and take off over Berkshire. They also do this if an east wind is blowing to a strength of up to five knots. This is known as westerly preference. This consultation is asking whether westerly preference should be brought to an end and, if so, whether it should be replaced by easterly preference or no preference at all.