Heathrow: why I’m anti the antis

By Shamik Das

After yet another appeal was launched this week against the plans for the expansion of Heathrow, you’d be forgiven for thinking that every man and his dog was opposed to the proposals, so one-sided has the coverage been.

Indeed, on his way into court yesterday morning, Allen Stanford look-alike Ray Puddifoot, head of Hillingdon Council and leader of the 2M group of local authorities opposing expansion, said that “just about everyone other than [Transport Secretary] Geoff Hoon thinks the Government has got this wrong”.

Well, Ray, I hate to disappoint you, but not everyone agrees with you on this, not even every one of the constituents who pay your £60,853 allowance, many of whom are dependent on Heathrow for their jobs, many more of whom will welcome the thousands of new vacancies created by the expansion.

And it’s not just in west London that the pinch will be felt should the anti-expansionists have their way, the whole of the British tourist industry will suffer, with a record 33 million visitors coming to the United Kingdom last year, a figure set to increase dramatically and for which capacity must be found.

In all, the tourist trade is worth £114 billion a year to the economy, about five per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, and employs hundreds of thousands of people both directly and indirectly.

When the global economy picks up, which it surely will, it is vital that Britain is in a position to take advantage, welcoming foreign visitors and companies from the new millennium economies of China, India and Brazil, making it easier for them to come over and do business.

The number of jobs that will be created by the construction of the new runway and terminal alone will be vast, on top of which you can add in those working at Terminal 6 and the jobs in airlines, aircraft manufacturing and production and the employment opportunities created by foreign companies basing themselves here or desisting from relocating elsewhere.

Take Brazil for example. At present there are only a handful of direct flights between London and South America, with most passengers forced to change planes in Spain or Portugal, clocking up the same number of air miles and contributing the same if not more pollution, which brings us to one of the great myths of the green movement: that global CO2 emissions would be reduced if a third runway wasn’t built.

People will still fly – intercontinentally and within Europe – CO2 will still be emitted and aeroplanes will continue to be built, the only difference being that those planes will be flying not to London but to Amsterdam or Paris or Madrid, all of which have spare capacity, all of whom would welcome any increase with open arms.

All that will happen is that people travelling to and from this country to the ends of the Earth will be forced to make their way to the Continent and then continue their journey. And how will they get to their link airport? By plane of course, unless they opt for the boat/train combo, increasing exponentially their journey times and inconvenience.

Another argument in favour of expansion is that the Government have said that any increase in capacity is dependent on airlines using cleaner, quieter and more fuel-efficient aircraft, which could actually decrease emissions in the long run; a large number of “clean” aircraft may end up producing less pollution than a smaller number of “dirty” aircraft.

There is simply no alternative to air travel, even if a futuristic super-high speed trans-Continental magneto-rocket train carrying non-stop express rail network is constructed. It will almost always be cheaper, quicker and more enjoyable to fly, London to Paris excepted.

The buzz of anticipation when you hear the engines being fired up, the shiver down your spine, that mixture of dread and wonderment as you taxi across the apron while being read the safety procedures, the adrenaline coursing through your veins as you accelerate down the runway and rise majestically into the sky, soaring like an eagle up into the clouds, looking down upon the ever-decreasing lilliputian cars, matchbox-sized houses and sewing thread rivers… there’s no sensation like it, no thrill so pleasurable.

Dubai has six runways, Schipol five and Charles de Gaulle four; is it really too much to ask that Heathrow have three?