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Comment by mech1234 | Hacker News Reader

On the margin, compared to the alternative, this will: 1. Make flights to and from, and connecting flights through, Heathrow more expensive. 2. Move more flights to other neighboring airports. 3. Reduce the volume of people flying to/from/through the Heathrow and the UK in general.

I am not sure how much of each effect is needed to absorb the change.

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If you make things more expensive, less people will buy that thing. It will reduce emissions in the UK by reducing the airtraffic through the UK. Exactly the intended consequence.

plus we can invest that money improving bus services and rail networks, which will help poorer people participate in the economy. If you can't get the bus to work, you probably don't need a plane to Dubai...

What do you mean by improving bus services? Greater West London is the most connected outside of Central, it's TfL policy not to invest in better, cleaner, greener buses not because the money is instead going to LHR expansion.

buses outside of London are (mainly) massively overpriced and horrifically irregular - it's a problem we need to fix right now imo

I agree.

Personally I'm pro expansion but not too concerned if it never happens. However, it will be a great shame if, after all of this effort in the name of environment, these smaller issues I mentioned don't get solved.

Yeah no. LHR has one of the highest airport tax, yet still is a leading world hub and annual pax numbers keep going up.

That simply means, from a “prohibitionist” point of view, that the tax is not high enough.

Lol can't wait for 400% beef tax to save the planet /s

All the way through the process I've struggled to understand who will benefit from Heathrow being a hub other than the airport itself. Especially now smaller airports have regular flights across the Atlantic and to other parts of the world.

Do you accept that increasing the size of a local factory creates local jobs?

Why would an airport be any different? >50% of the employees are going to be ground crew, security agents, etc.

Even if all the hub traffic went away Heathrow would still be a busy airport. There is a huge demand for air travel to and from London, the airport is at capacity now.

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