Date published: 2006/05/08
The Cambridge Evening News says:
Stansted Airport's second runway faces another delay.
Airport operator BAA is now assuming an opening date of 2015/16, pushing the project back by at least two years. It is the second time in a year the plan has been delayed.
Anti-expansion campaigners said comfort could be taken from the news. But they said BAA's recent planning application to remove its passenger limit, which currently limits it to 25 million passengers a year, indicated the company's intentions.
The Government's Air Transport White Paper called for two new runways to be built in the South East - the first at Stansted by 2011/2012 and the second at Gatwick or Heathrow no earlier than 2015.
But in May last year, BAA said the scheme had moved slower than expected due to planning complexities and challenges.
BAA should announce in June which runway option for Stansted it will take through the planning process.
Well one shouldn't necessarily take the reasons BAA gives at face value, but the planning process in England is ridiculous. Imagine taking more than ten years just to build a new runway. If BAA is serious about a second runway then they had better act quickly, because the way the political climate is moving in England, in a few years no new runways or airport expansion will be allowed (since allegedly more flights means the end of the world, so flying should be made very expensive so that only the rich can afford to fly like in the good old days).
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