Glasgow Business . 23
www.glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
Heathrow third runway ‘vital to Scots economy’ H
aving a major hub airport such as Heathrow in the UK is vital for Scotland’s
economy, Colin Mathews, Chief Executive of Heathrow Airport Holdings stated in his Glasgow Talk. Mr Mathews stressed that it
was vital for a third runway to be built to solve the capacity issues at the airport. “Do we want to defend the
UK’s economic position? We will need to have a hub to make long haul traffic economic,” Mr Mathews said. “All I am saying is that it is
beter for Scotland and beter for the UK that we have one of these hubs on our island rather than on someone else’s island.” He said that air links were
vital to a modern economy: “Te nation trades 20 times more with those countries with which we have a direct air connection,” he said. He said that there might be
fewer than the current six major hub airports in future – they are Frankfurt, Paris Charles De Gaulle, Schiphol in Amsterdam, Madrid-Barajas and Dubai in addition to Heathrow. Only six airports around the
world serve more than 50 long-haul destinations, he said – Heathrow is one with 90. Asked about what would
happen if Scotland became independent, Mr Mathews said it would be unlikely that a major hub airport could be developed in Scotland. He said that there were three
choices before the Davies Commission – the commission set up by the UK government and
“The nation trades 20 times more with those countries with which we have a direct air connection”
Colin Matthews, Chief Executive, Heathrow Airport Holdings; Amanda McMillan, Managing Director, Glasgow Airport and Stuart Patrick, Chief Executive, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce
chaired by Sir Howard Davies that is looking at the future of airport provision. Te choices were:
» Do nothing and let the UK fall behind its European competitors at the cost of lost growth and jobs
» Add additional capacity at Heathrow
» Close Heathrow and replace it with a new hub airport. Mr Mathews said he believed
that the option of building a new hub airport – as suggested by London Mayor Boris Johnson – would be “economically impossible”. Asked about the high-speed
rail project, HS2, Mr Mathews said he welcomed it because it would increase traffic to Heathrow and might mean the airport would be able to free up some slots. Amanda McMillan, Managing
Director of Glasgow Airport, said that if HS2 did come up to Scotland it might reduce the number of Glasgow-London flights from nine or ten a day to three or four a day. Tere are currently no plans to
extend HS2 to Scotland. Until such time, it is important we maintain and, where possible, enhance our links with Heathrow.
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