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 to best expand the country’s aviation capacity.
The commission decided that Heathrow presented a stronger case for the British economy than rival Gatwick. But it stressed that Europe’s largest airport needs to address air quality, noise and community concerns.
“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. “Gatwick is much more focused on short-haul intra-European flying.”
The commission studied the matter for nearly three years — an effort to get facts on the table amid a toxic political debate. Critics argue that an independent commission also offered a way for Prime Minister David Cameron to duck the issue. He had once pledged that a third runway would not happen, “no ifs, no buts,” but he is under pressure from the business community to expand.
England needs more airport capacity to meet the growing demands of business travelers and tourists into the coming decades. Heathrow, west of central London and rival Gatwick, south of the city, have offered competing projects that will cost as much as 18.6 billion pounds ($29.1 billion).
But expansion comes with a cost: Homes will be destroyed and surviving neighborhoods will have to cope with increased noise, pollution and traffic. Some communities will be completely bulldozed.
Longtime opponent, London Mayor Boris Johnson, said the expanding Heathrow merely exacerbates poor planning decisions from the past.
“I don’t think this is going to happen,” he told the BBC. “This is the sort of thing that you could have possibly have gotten away with in China in the 1950s. The impact on London, the impact on the city, the environmental cost, the whole human rights, legal challenges … will be so great. I don’t think it’s deliverable.’
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.
Residents seized on the conditions, arguing that it would be impossible for Heathrow to honor those measures.
“Heathrow will face the mother of all challenges to meet the conditions for a third runway set down by Davies, and key members of the Cabinet remain opposed to Heathrow expansion,” said anti-expansion activist John Stewart. “Faced with these problems there is still no guarantee the government will back a third runway when it makes its final decision later this year.”
Gatwick made clear it was ready to keep fighting.
“Gatwick is still very much in the race.” Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate said. “The Commission’s report makes clear that expansion at Gatwick is deliverable.”
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