Stansted Airport is using Suffolk Punches to help it manage woodland at the end of the runway. The Essex airport owns the 40 hectare site and says it wants to encourage wildlife. The horses are helping to remove felled wood, which is recycled or used as fuel for the terminal building.
Planes coming into Gatwick Airport. Credit: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Bosses at Gatwick Airport today said it could be handling around 45 million passengers a year by 2030. The airport currently has agreed that it will not build a second runway by 2019 but could build one after that. The airport currently handles 34m passengers each year.
Gatwick chiefs said a noise insulation scheme for local residents already existed and a new scheme would be rolled out in 2013 following a public consultation.
Report says Heathrow doesn't need to be a 'hub airport'
Heathrow has traditionally been seen as a 'hub airport'. Credit: Steve Parsons/PA Wire
A new report by the chief executive of Birmingham Airport says that the Government should expand regional airports elsewhere in the country instead of Heathrow. Paul Kehoe says having a single hub airport like Heathrow "has become rigid aviation orthodox" and wants to examine alternative solutions.
He claims that adding a third runway at Heathrow would only boost passenger capacity by a small amount. Mr Kehoe added that expanding regional airports would help to rebalance the economy away from the South-East.
Prime Minister: Government has not changed mind over Heathrow
David Cameron has said that the Coalition has not changed its position to keep just two runways at Heathrow Airport. Business groups have campaigned for the airport to be expanded but the Government, so far, has said no.
Heathrow has a great future as a key UK airport. But we cannot endlessly expand it, and cram a quart into a pint pot.
A third runway would be an environmental disaster. It would mean a huge increase in plans over London, and intolerable traffic and fumes in the west of the city – and it will not be built as long as I am Mayor of London.
That is why the Government is right to look at all new solutions for extra aviation capacity except the third runway at Heathrow.
I look forward to engaging with Justine Greening’s consultation this summer. By contrast, Ken Livingstone’s useless anti-business policies would mean no extra aviation capacity anywhere in the south east. He offers no hope to British business that needs direct flights to Asia and Latin America. His delusional programme seems to mean grounding the business community in London – but spending huge sums of taxpayers’ money for himself and his cronies to visit Hugo Chavez. That is no way to grow the London economy.
Boris says he won't allow a third runway at Heathrow
Boris Johnson has insisted he won't allow a third runway to be built at Heathrow Airport, amid speculation that senior Tories want to revisit the idea.
The Conservative Mayor of London, fighting for re-election in May, says the move would be "intolerable" for people in the west of the capital.
The government is playing down reports ministers are considering resurrecting the idea of a third runway at Heathrow. Several newspapers are claiming the deal is back on the table, which would signal a u-turn on a key manifesto pledge. Toby Sadler reports.
A British Airways jet taking off at Heathrow. Credit: PA
The Government is reported to be have discussed bringing back a plan to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport. The idea was shelved by David Cameron in 2010 on environmental grounds. But the Chancellor George Osborne is said to be backing for the plan, saying it would boost the economy.