Hasn’t Brexit destroyed the case for a third Heathrow runway?

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The FT quite appropriately notes the big issues facing airlines after Brexit this morning. Put bluntly, no one knows whether UK based aircraft will be permitted to fly into EU airports after 30 March 2019, and if they are on what routes they will be permitted to fly.

Optimists will say all these issues will be resolved before that date.

Pessimists just have to say Gibraltar to provide a reason for the required unanimity to the easy option of an EU wide deal not being available.

What I do think likely is that a price will be extracted: the days of flights as cheap as they are now will be over. As a person with environmental concern (and far too large a carbon foot print) that should not concern me. But it should Brexiteers. The end of cheap flights to almost anywhere in Europe may well leave a lot of people very unhappy.

But there is another much more relevant and immediate question to also address. If any restrictions are likely, and I think they are, then why is it that we still need a new runway at Heathrow? It seems to me that Brexit has completely shot the case for that. We are not going to be the gateway to Europe now, and never will be again. And what is more, we may not even have the flights to make the links.

I would seriously suggest it's time to scrap plans for Heathrow's expansion. We're just not going to need it.


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