Airlines resorting to 'Doomsday' tactics to win support for Heathrow expansion

4.04.05pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 10th Jun 2003

The supporters of Heathrow's expansion are resorting to doomsday predictions to push the merits of a third runway.

At last Thursday's London Assembly transport committee meeting to discuss the future of aviation in the south-east, airlines including British Airways and Virgin suggested that without a third runway, the UK's international economic competitiveness would be dealt a killer blow.

Sally Hamwee, Lib Dem planning spokesperson and Mortlake resident, criticised the airlines for painting such a gloomy picture: "It was such an extreme scenario, the committee actually started to laugh!"

"The real doomsday scenario would be if the airlines get their way on a third runway."

"Where will it stop? Once we were promised that Terminal 3 would be the end to development at Heathrow but now we are facing the prospect of a sixth terminal. "

"Airlines are calling for an expanded Heathrow but is that what the public wants? Local residents, already suffering because of the noise levels and environmental damage, don't want a third runway. And do the travelling public want a bigger Heathrow that is already large and unwieldy compared to airports such as Luton and would make it even more confusing to navigate?"