Airports commission recommends expanding Heathrow
LONDON (AP) — Britain's Airports Commission unanimously recommended the construction of a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport on Wednesday in a long-awaited report on how best to expand the country's aviation capacity.
"Heathrow offers the kind of long-haul connectivity flights to emerging markets which are very important to the future of the British economy and expanding it would allow Heathrow to offers more of those flights," Commission chair Howard Davies told the BBC.
The commission tried to mitigate those concerns by offering conditions, recommending a ban on all scheduled flights from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., having firm commitments in Parliament to have no fourth runway and a legally binding "noise envelope" to limit noise created by the airport.
Though Cameron told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the government would make a decision by the end of the year, it is unlikely any work will start soon — if for no other reason than that lawsuits are likely to follow any proposal.
"Political decisions regarding new runways at major commercial airports tend to be among the most difficult and divisive," said John Kasarda, the director of the center for air commerce at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School.
[...] connectivity equals competitiveness.