London’s Heathrow Airport on Tuesday offered some much needed good news for the British economy: a plan to increase air traffic.
Heathrow provides a critical economic service in facilitating the arrival of tourists and investors to British soil. This is a rather important concern in that the British isles are … well, islands. Despite lacking multiple land links to its neighbors beyond the Chunnel and its border with the Republic of Ireland, the U.K. lacks sufficient airport capacity. This means that it is harder for businesses to get to Britain quickly and invest on short notice. And it means that the cost of traveling to the U.K. remains higher than it should be.
In the context of Brexit-related economic doubts, Britain is in great need of critical infrastructure that better enables economic activity.
In turn, Heathrow’s plan for a third runway and associated infrastructure is long overdue. But while the plan is well-developed, getting it built will be a slog. Overly deferential to hard-line environmentalist groups and local neighborhoods which resent the noise pollution associated with Heathrow’s operation, the British government has delayed the construction. It was only last year that Parliament finally approved the third runway. But many legal challenges and bureaucratic delays yet await.
Frankly, Heathrow needs four runways if it is to optimize its economic service to the nation. But the third runway should be a no-brainer.
Of course, the protesters aren’t backing down. John Stewart of the Hacan anti-expansion group told the BBC on Tuesday that “The impact on local people could be severe for many years to come. Disruption from construction; the demolition of homes; the reality of more than 700 extra planes a day.”
That’s true: the impact on local people will likely be significant. But I’m afraid that is a very marginal concern in the assessed interests of the British people. This airport expansion needs to happen. Absent that, Britain’s economic potential will match its dysfunction on Brexit.
