Heathrow Bursting At The Seams

Tuesday 11th December 2007

Heathrow Airport is busy - very busy and rumour has it that the airport is struggling to cope with the capacity of traffic it is having to cope with. Heathrow Airport has an astonishingly low number of runways - two in total compared with Paris Charles de Gaulle which has four and Schipol in Amsterdam with five. Both these airports handle less passengers than Heathrow Airport which illustrates just how crammed it is getting.

The expansion of Heathrow Airport is a hot topic with government and within the aviation industry and with the recent addition of terminal five Heathrow Airports appetite for expansion is strong.

The question of noise and pollution is the strongest factor against the expansion of `Heathrow Airport, however the government claims that noise levels will not increase. It is true that aircraft engine technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last twenty years with the new Airbus A380 with its four huge engines creating less noise than a Tristar or DC-10 dating back to the 1960's/70's.

This is a relevant point however little conselation to the Heathrow residents who face an extra 240,000 arrivals and departures a year.

For more information please visit BBC News