The British Airports Authority and British Airways have decided that the London Heathrow Airport needs a third runway.  Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, said in a transport conference that the hub in London need another short runway and a mixed-mode operating system on the two runways that they already have to supply more space for take-offs and landings.  He says that the lack of extra space on the runway is what caused the global network at Heathrow to decrease from 227 destination spots in 1990 to only 180 now.  The decreasing cycle, he added, needs to be turned around.

Colin Matthews, the chief executive of the British Airports Authority, said, in the same conference, that this lack of space makes it more susceptible to disruptions and less flexible than other airports in Europe.  Only adding another runway will give the airport the flexibility it should have.  He also said that the company regrets all of the chaos that went on during the launch of the fifth terminal in the London Heathrow Airport earlier in the year, and he regarded the disruption as mistakes that were made by them and others.  Despite all of the chaos, he also added that the British Airports Authority is improving their performance, where last month 95% of their passengers who flew out of the Heathrow Airport only waited in security lines for 5 minutes at the most.  He finished by stating that airlines are trying to break-up the control of Stansted, Gatwick, and Heathrow airports by the British Airports Authority, but that will not answer their problems of capacity.gat

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