Business
Technology is the key to problems with Heathrow, by Ian Vickerage
I was flying back from a business trip to San Diego last week when we met the usual “stacking” problem at Heathrow, and spent 30 minutes flying in circles before we could land after a flight which had already lasted 10 hours.It was a frustrating experience, but not a surprising one, since it’s happened to me many times before. Also, I had attended a seminar given by the Thames Valley Economic Partnership earlier in January where the reasons for the delays at Heathrow were explained.
Essentially, it seems that Heathrow is full, operating at 99 per cent of permitted runway capacity at the moment, which means that the slightest glitch will result in delays. In fact, the case for expansion at the airport seems to be accepted: in 2003, the Government said it supported a third runway at Heathrow if strict environmental limits could be met. The Government said that Heathrow was very important for the economy but that growth would only be allowed to happen if there was no more over all noise, and if air quality could be improved.
Since it looks like these environmental targets will be met, as a result of the improved fuel economy and lower emissions of modern aircraft, then the expansion of Heathrow should go ahead. But there are still a couple of questions to answer.
First, how are we supposed to get to and from the airport? Rail links are poor, especially from the West, and road links like the M3 and the M4 are impossibly congested at the moment - things will only get worse over the next 10 years with the natural growth of traffic, and the 50 per cent capacity increase a third runway will bring to Heathrow will obviously intensify the jams. The incredibly expensive Crossrail project (£16 billion) will help rail commuters from East and Central London to get to the airport quickly, but it will do nothing to help us travellers from the West. We need much improved rail connections from the West, probably starting from Reading, as well as a widening of the M4, if the benefits of a third runway are to be realised.
The second question is environmental: it’s good that the targets of no increase in noise through the airport expansion, and an improvement in air quality, will be met, but the continual increase in air and road traffic cannot be sustained forever. I don’t know anyone who believes that this type of unrestrained growth can be allowed to continue for much longer.
The longer-term answer has to come from technology. Only 25 per cent of travellers passing though Heathrow are holidaymakers, with business people being the largest group using the airport, accounting for 40 per cent of journeys at the moment, rising to 47.5 per cent by 2030. Virtually all of this business traffic could be eliminated through the effective use of the latest generation of video conferencing and Telepresence technology. The technology is good enough to achieve this today; we need the Government to start promoting this solution as hard as it is pushing the case for Heathrow expansion.
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