London Airport Auctions

Considerable business pressure built up until the airports commission was created. This was despite residents close to London airports and along flight paths frankly having had enough of aircraft noise.

Things like the tiny number of night flights still being allowed have really antagonised many many Londoners.

Labour politicians are for Heathrow expansion. The Conservatives were against but now many of their politicians have broken ranks and are for Heathrow expansion. The Liberal Democrats are still against Heathrow expansion and despite their leadership flirting with an extra Gatwick runway are still against London airports expanding.

To pile on the pressure airlines are saying they won’t quit Heathrow for Gatwick even if Gatwick was expanded with an extra runway.

A really simple solution would be the government auctioning take off and landing slots at airports with a shortage of them such as Heathrow. It would raise significant sums that could be ring fenced to improve public transport. The auction would help airlines by rationing something they all say they want and could create the spare capacity needed to cope with disruption. Currently Heathrow operates at 99% capacity allowing only 1% of capacity for problems leading to chaos if a flight is early or during bad weather.
The added costs from such auctions should be offset by airlines valuing such slots much more and maximising the occupancy of flights and size of aircraft used.Such a policy would be a radical solution rather than pandering to airline demands.

How do you think London airport capacity should be managed?

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