Heathrow row, terminal?
by Simon Handby in Your car on 27.03.08
Heathrow’s controversial new Terminal 5 opened its doors to passengers today. According to the Guardian, passengers disembarking from the first flight – from Hong Kong – were glad to see that Europe’s busiest airport finally had facilities to rival Hong Kong’s feted International Airport.
Though T5 comes as a welcome relief to those flying by British Airways, which has sole use of the terminal, environmental campaigners insist that it must be the last expansion at the airport, and that a planned third runway cannot be built.
In a Friends of the Earth (FoE) statement summing up the charity’s position on airports in the UK, transport campaigner Richard Dyer said:
If the government is serious about tackling climate change the opening of Terminal 5 must mark the end of airport expansion in Britain. Further expansion of Heathrow would be environmentally irresponsible and isn’t necessary for the economy of London.
FoE also says that, despite the claims of business lobby groups, airport expansion is low on the list of priorities for UK businesses. It quotes a London Chamber of Commerce survey in which 78% of London firms said they were against expansion of the airport.
A couple of months ago we examined how cars compare to planes on safety, speed, cost and emissions. Granted, the humble automobile isn’t much of an alternative if you need to get to and from Hong Kong, but anyone thinking of taking an internal flight or a short hop to mainland Europe should probably still check out the speed and cost of ‘greener’ options like driving or grabbing the Eurostar.
IMAGE by Flickr user PhillipC
Add your comment