T5 won't solve Heathrow congestion

THE long-awaited decision this week by Transport Secretary Stephen Byers to give the go-ahead to Terminal 5 at Heathrow will create more congestion, according to Britain's largest travel management firm.

Heathrow's capacity is an annual 54m passengers, yet this year 62m will use it. Based on forecasts of future growth, and the six-year building programme of T5, 'Heathrow will be grid-locked before it gets built,' said BTI UK managing director Mike Platt.

When it opens, in 2007 at the earliest, T5 will give Heathrow total capacity of some 80m to 85m passengers. But industry observers believe the decision is too little too late, particularly as T5 will open long after Paris gets a third airport.

'Charles de Gaulle airport will have an unassailable lead over Heathrow by then,' said Platt. 'T5 should have been built for the millennium. I'm horrified by how long it took to come to the decision.'

Amsterdam and Frankfurt are also gradually eroding Heathrow's lead in Europe. Many business travellers, particularly those living in the north of England, find it more convenient to fly via Amsterdam's Schipol airport than through London.

Business travellers may also find themselves contributing to the T5 inquiry bill. 'The extra cost of the planning will inevitably be passed on to the traveller,' said Charles Sommer, chairman of the Air Working Committee of the Guild of Business Travel Agents. 'The Government has to look at planning procedures; they are too slow, too cumbersome and too expensive. The French do it quicker and also believe in fair market value for residents who will be displaced and moving the whole process on in a far more co-operative way.'

Sommer believes the only good news to come out of the T5 decision is that there will be better rail connections and wider roads to the airport.