The debate over expansion of airports in the South East of England continues to rumble along, with all three of the airline alliances stepping in to voice their concerns.
And you never guess – they all want to stay at Heathrow – but build that 3rd Runway!
- Oneworld and British Airways are happy with their T5 home and constantly refurbished T3
- Star Alliance who are moving into the brand new Terminal 2 complex in 2014 are saying “This will allow us to effectively compete with the other alliances in Heathrow and add to the quality of our services and therefore we do not see any opportunity for us to make a change to another airport”
- SkyTeam aren’t too impressed either, with Tae Joon Kim – Vice President of Airport Services stating “Relocating to another London or UK airport is not an option for our members“.
With the three major sets of tenants at Heathrow saying “no”, it does rather make the idea of the Thames Estuary Airport (Either on the Isle of Grain or “Boris Island” a bit of a farce if the airlines don’t want to up stick and move home. Similarly, if one alliance was shunted off to another airport – say Gatwick – whilst that would
The Airports Commission is seeking feedback on the various submissions by September 27. Details of the work can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/airports-commission. The commission is due to give its interim findings towards the end of 2013, and its full report in summer 2015.
Of course, by that point, the UK will have a new administration in charge… and the British Government will probably won’t be able to make a decision – as I’ve outline this post.