MPs endorse third runway at Heathrow

MPs have controversially backed the government’s decision to approve the building of a third runway at Heathrow, as well as a new terminal. The House of Commons Transport Committee has also said that it supports plans to build another runway at Gatwick rather that at Stansted.

The committee stated that because of planning complications, a new runway at Stansted would not be completed by 2019, the year in which the embargo on further development at Gatwick would be lifted, and therefore it would be better to concentrate efforts on expanding Britain’s second largest airport.

Endorsement of a third runway at Heathrow comes just before government advisers are due to present a report to ministers on how well the airline industry is coping with trying to reduce levels of carbon emissions.

The government has said that expansion at Heathrow is necessary in order to reduce the amount of congestion at the airport. They warned that if this was not done, the U.K. could lose billions as passengers and businesses decide to seek out less crowded airports from which to do their travelling.

The Liberal Democrats have slammed the argument by pointing out that a bigger Heathrow would simply mean the government will have to fork out extra money to cover the cost of CO2 emissions from an extra 220,000 flights per year. Campaigners against Heathrow’s expansion also argue that the economic ideas behind developing Heathrow further do not make sense any more and that a number of experts have convincingly discredited them.