The Metropolis

Malaysia Airlines' new Airbus route to London should make us query the "Heathrow in crisis" spin

Mike Pollitt | Monday 2 July, 2012 12:19

The Evening Standard ran an editorial last week entitled London needs new runway space now. They’ve also knocked up a graphic for the print edition of the paper which announces “Heathrow in Crisis”. We should take this with a pinch of salt, and here’s why.

The Malaysian national news agency reports:

“SEPANG, July 1 (Bernama) — Malaysia Airlines (MAS) launched its maiden Airbus A380 flight to London tonight with Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin sending off the passengers on the flight at a glittering ceremony, here. The superjumbo will be on a thrice-weekly KL-London service before going daily in August.”

Why is this significant? It’s significant because, as it’s configured for Malaysia Airlines, the Airbus A380 can carry 494 passengers. The airline’s existing fleet of Boeings carry a maximum of 386 passengers. That’s an increase of 28% in the number of people who can fit on each flight.

Why am I boring you with the seating arrangements of far eastern airlines? Because if more passengers can be accomodated on the same number of planes, then a growth in capacity can be accomodated by the existing infrastructure. More people can land on the same number of runways.

Labour’s London Assembly member Murad Qureshi puts this under-argued case in a blog post entitled Heathrow is expanding but BAA don’t want Londoners to know it.

“At present Heathrow turnsover 69 million passengers annually and once the redevelopment and construction of the five terminals are complete, it will be able to cope with 90 million passengers a year…It would be helpful for both passengers and for the wider industry if BAA were a lot more truthful about what is actually happening at Heathrow. The discussion should cease to be one way traffic all about lack of capacity and should instead focus on what is happening on the ground right now. Larger planes, more passengers flying and room for more.”

It’s not flat-earthing to suggest that we should maximise current capacity before building more. Capacity can increase and is increasing without the need for more runways or airports. An argument can be fairly made that in time demand will still exceed capacity. But “Crisis? What crisis?” is a question we need to ask before swallowing the air lobby’s spin.

UPDATE: Please see the comments for a well-informed complication to the argument stated here.

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