Airports: Capacity

Lord Faulkner of Worcester Excerpts

Tuesday 8th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

I agree with my noble friend that if you use bigger aircraft you can get more passengers through Heathrow for the same number of flights.

[Lord Faulkner of Worcester]

My Lords, what proportion of the capacity at Heathrow do the Government estimate will be released if their plans to build High Speed 2—initially to Birmingham and then to Manchester and Leeds—are fulfilled? Is it not the case that when high-speed railways are built on the continent, domestic aviation diminishes and as a result there is spare capacity at airports?

[Earl Attlee]

The noble Lord makes an important point, but it will not solve our underlying problem that we will still eventually run out of capacity at the London airports.