Lord Spicer's question, "To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan for London Heathrow Airport to continue to be the world's busiest airport in respect of international passenger traffic.", was an opportunity to revisit the shambles that was Heathrow Airport in December's snow.
Clearly, the hope was that the Government might rethink it's blanket refusal to countenance more runways at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, but no dice. Ros took the opportunity to make a plea for rather better management of the available landing and take-off slots...
Baroness Scott of Needham Market: Will consideration of more effective use of the airports include a look at the provision of take-off and landing slots, which currently owes a lot to history and very little to common economic imperatives?
The Minister responded;
Earl Attlee: My Lords, a future airspace strategy is being undertaken, which includes proposals to enable aircraft to fly in more environmentally efficient ways. For example, the introduction of new onboard and ground-based systems will allow pilots to fly more direct routes and therefore reduce fuel burn and enable aircraft to arrive punctually at the approach to Heathrow, which will provide controllers with much better opportunities to guide aircraft into Heathrow without first placing them in a stack.
I'll take that as a 'no', then...
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