p10-11 News jan23 21/1/09 17:29 Page 10
news heathrow third runway
ttglive.com
The government has given the go-ahead for a third runway at Heathrow, but is it what the industry
needs? Chris Gray reports on the possible impact on Gatwick and gauges industry leaders’ opinions
P
A Photos
Heathrow threatens
Do you approve
of new runway?
to ‘decimate’ Gatwick
Justin Francis,
managing director,
Responsibletravel.com
“While most of the members
A THIRD runway at Heathrow could “decimate” “tumbleweed blowing down the runway at that we work with depend on
Gatwick, which has already lost capacity from Gatwick” once BA moved services over. aviation to generate business, the majority of
carriers moving out or going bust. Gatwick has already suffered from the loss of them are against the third runway. It’s a myth
Gatwick would suffer because British Airways XL Airways and Zoom going bust and carriers that everyone in the tourism industry backs an
would move services from there and buy up slots such as Continental moving to Heathrow after the expansion. We should be focusing on flying
on the third runway to stop rivals competing on US-EU Open Skies agreement gave them access. less, and improving the benefits of existing
its Heathrow routes, airline executives said. One airline executive said: “BA will put international tourism to local communities and
Their warnings came amid widespread everything in Heathrow and decimate Gatwick. conservation, not on flying more.”
welcomes for the government’s decision to allow It’s extremely bad news for Gatwick.”
a third runway from bodies such as Abta and He also questioned Virgin and BMI’s public Mark Tanzer,
airline groups. support for a new runway, claiming they would chief executive, Abta
However, others said it was a “myth” that the prefer to keep the status quo to preserve the value “Heathrow has received a
whole industry supported a third runway, and of their slots and prevent competitors moving in. barrage of criticism for poor
called for it to be built at Gatwick instead. Aviation analyst Douglas McNeill said BA customer service, much of
Justin Francis, managing director of online shares fell the day after the third runway was an- which is directly attributable to its operating
agent
Responsibletravel.com, said most of the nounced, suggesting investors saw little benefit at near peak capacity. A new runway will help
operators he worked with opposed the third for the airline, possibly because they felt opposi- address this problem. The skies above
runway even though they depended on flying for tion was so strong it might never be built. Heathrow are often full of aircraft circling in
their business. ■ Gatwick bidders fail to meet £2bn price, p17 “stacks” waiting for a landing slot to become
And Monarch Airlines managing director Tim available. This polluting and fuel-inefficient
Jeans said Heathrow was simply in the wrong
ttglive.com
Keep up to date with developments at
practice will be largely eradicated by the
place for a third runway, and would lead to Heathrow at
ttglive.com/air provision of a new runway.”
10 23.01.2009
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