Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, has warned that a third runway must be built at Heathrow Airport if London’s world-class business status is to be preserved.
Writing in the Evening Standard, Mr Walsh notes that, in spite of the imminent opening of Terminal 5 next year, Heathrow’s route network is shrivelling.
“It is self-evident that to be a world capital, you have to have excellent links with the rest of the world,” he writes, but points out that the number of destinations offered has shrunk from 227 in 1990 to 180 today, as airlines concentrate on the most profitable routes.
In comparison, continental airports offer many more destinations – Frankfurt 265, Amsterdam 260 and Paris Charles de Gaulle 223 – and are likely to increase to close to 300 by 2015.
This is because of capacity – Paris has four runways, Frankfurt is currently constructing a fourth, and Amsterdam has five. Heathrow only has two, and they are chock-full all day long.
Frankfurt and Paris can recover quickly after any disruption, Walsh says, but “at Heathrow, a breath of fog at 7am causes knock-on delays all day”.
The government is expected to begin a public consultation on building a third runway at Heathrow soon.
