Heathrow's third runway plans cancelled

Heathrow's proposed plans for a third runway have been cancelled by the new Conservative-Lib-Dem government. The plans were originally put in place by Gordon Brown and Labour, with a third runway allowing for 600,000 additional flights every year. This would have brought in billions of pounds from abroad to help the economy, however the new Government want to focus more on domestic public transport, with proposals for a new high speed railway to link London and Edinburgh, as well as better transport links to Heathrow itself.

Councils, residents and green campaigners are delighted at the news. The additional flights would have had significant implications in terms of noise pollution for local residents, while the environmental damage has led to many a protest. Proposed plans for new runways at Stansted and Gatwick have also been scrapped.

Heathrow is already one of the busiest airports in the world, helping link the UK with some of the best holiday destinations in the World. Approximately 67 million visitors use Heathrow airport yearly. There is obviously huge demand for Heathrow airport parking and plans for expanding these facilities had been included in the 3rd runway proposal.

London still has exceptional links to the rest of the world, and for travelling to your favourite holiday destinations in Europe, America etc, the number of major airports in and around London is second to none.

Flights

Flying is by far the most popular way of reaching the top holiday destinations in the world. Cheap flights run by companies like Easyjet and Ryanair have helped make travelling to more exotic destinations around the world much more accessible and affordable. Last minute flights can often be bought at rock bottom prices, with various websites specifically specialising in this kind of deal.

Cheap flights obviously have their drawbacks though, not much legroom and no free onboard services make the journey not particularly luxurious in most cases, however personally I love that, I don’t like being charged in my ticket for services I don’t want, I prefer to choose so personally I’d rather fly cheaply, more money to spend on food, drink and any other special treats later on in the holiday.

The increasing number of flights abroad does have it's drawbacks though - many people will complain of the expansion of variuos airports, with Heathrow being the prime example. Terminal 5 has recently been completed, which now deals with all British Airways flights, and there are plans for a 3rd runway to be built - this plan has fierce opposition from environmentalists and residents however - the Conservatives have promised to scrap these plans and build a faster and better railway network instead. In my opinion though if we want to keep up with other Global economic powerhouses we must build a new runway in order to meet increasing demand for flights.

The recently launched Airbus A380 is a new airliner in competition with the previous largest commercial jet - theBoeing 747. It has a huge passenger capacity and unparalleled onboard facilities such as casinos, double beds and gymnasiums. This as well as it's huge potential capacity of 853 people mean it could change long-haul flights to holiday destinations forever.