Eddington transport study supports future Heathrow development
01.12.06The Eddington Transport Study, which was jointly commissioned by Chancellor Gordon Brown and the Department for Transport, has supported the further expansion of Heathrow airport underlining its importance to the economic success of the UK. In his study into the links between transport and the economic productivity of the country, Eddington stated that a priority should be: “the key international gateways that are showing signs of increasing congestion and unreliability. Government should focus on these areas because they are heavily used, of growing economic importance, and showing signs of congestion and unreliability – and these problems are set to get significantly worse. They are the places where transport constraints have significant potential to hold back economic growth.” Any expansion at Heathrow would need to be done in the context of making UK aviation sustainable and “ensuring that air travellers pay the full environmental costs of their journey” but even after doing this there remained a “strong economic case for additional runway capacity”. The airport itself has “looming capacity problems” and the worst flight delays in the EU but measures such as the third runway and mixed mode (where take-offs and landing can be done on the same runway) would help to tackle these issues. Mixed mode alone was identified as offering lifetime benefits of £1.7 billion. All of this serves to further underline the urgent need for improvement and expansion at the country’s only world-class air transport hub, both in terms of airport infrastructure and surface access links to the airport itself.
Download Press Release: return to press-releases